Editor,—The suturing of lacerations of children is often difficult. Infiltration with 1% plain lignocaine (lidocaine) is commonly used to make the suturing more comfortable. This infiltration may cause pain and render the child uncooperative for the rest of the procedure.

Topical anaesthesia (TA) has been described since 1980.¹ The agent commonly used is a mixture of 0.5% tetracaine, 0.05% adrenaline (epinephrine) and 11.8% cocaine (TAC). This method has a similar efficacy to infiltration but is less painful to apply^{2, 3} and is used widely in the United States.