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Best Evidence Topic reports
Best evidence topic report: can intradermal sterile water injections provide effective pain relief in patients with renal colic?
  1. Alexander Hunt,
  2. Niall Pumfrey
  1. Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Alexander Hunt; alexander.hunt{at}mft.nhs.uk

Abstract

A short systematic review was undertaken to assess whether intradermal sterile water injections (ISWI) provide effective pain relief in adult patients presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) with renal colic. MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane and Google Scholar databases were searched, identifying seven relevant studies. Study information, patient characteristics, key results and methodological weaknesses were tabulated. Our results indicate that ISWI provides rapid and effective pain relief within the first 15–30 min, comparable to non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, with fewer adverse effects. The short follow-up periods, exclusion of more comorbid patients and variability in study design limit the generalisability of the findings. Further research is needed to establish the long-term effectiveness of ISWI in the management of renal colic in the ED.

  • renal
  • uro-genital
  • pain management

https://doi.org/10.1136/emermed-2024-214587

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Richard Body

    • Contributors AH (guarantor): study design, search process, data extraction and drafting of the initial manuscript. NP: search process, editing of manuscript. Both authors have reviewed and approved the final manuscript.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Disclaimer Disclaimer Best Evidence Topic reports (BETs) summarise the evidence pertaining to particular clinical questions. They are not systematic reviews, but rather contain the best (highest level) evidence that can be practically obtained by busy practising clinicians. The search strategies used to find the best evidence are reported in detail in order to allow clinicians to update searches whenever necessary. Each BET is based on a clinical scenario and ends with a clinical bottom line which indicates, in the light of the evidence found, what the reporting clinician would do if faced with the same scenario again. This BET was first published on the BestBETs website at http://www.bestbets.org and has been reproduced with permission.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.