PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - D W G Kennedy AU - Z Shaikh AU - M J Fardy AU - R J Evans AU - StJ V Crean TI - Topical adrenaline and cocaine gel for anaesthetising children’s lacerations. An audit of acceptability and safety AID - 10.1136/emj.2003.010108 DP - 2004 Mar 01 TA - Emergency Medicine Journal PG - 194--196 VI - 21 IP - 2 4099 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/21/2/194.short 4100 - http://emj.bmj.com/content/21/2/194.full SO - Emerg Med J2004 Mar 01; 21 AB - Objectives: (1) To assess the acceptability of a gel solution of adrenaline (epinephrine) (1 in 2000) and cocaine (5%) for anaesthetising children’s facial lacerations to the child, parent, and operator. (2) To assess the safety of the current protocol. Setting: The emergency unit of a large university hospital. Methods: All patients who were treated with topical adrenaline and cocaine (topAC) gel over a six month period were entered into a prospective audit (n = 75). Patient details, the nature and cause of the injury, and any treatment carried out were all recorded. The acceptability to children over 3 years of age, was assessed by the use of the Wong Baker face scale, in which 0 represents “no hurt” and 5 represents “hurts worst”. The acceptability to both the parent and the operator was assessed by the use of a 0 to 9 Likert scale, where 0 represented “very acceptable” and 9 represented “not at all” acceptable. Results: (1) Children aged 3 years or older graded their pain during the procedure as having a mean value of 1.17 on the Wong Baker (0 to 5) scale. Parents graded acceptability on the Likert scale (0 to 9) with a mean score of 1.13. Operators using the same grading system, recorded a mean score of 1.75. (2) No toxic side effects were seen but the protocol was updated in line with evidence. Conclusions: Topical adrenaline and cocaine is an effective anaesthetic for suturing children’s facial lacerations and is acceptable to child, parent, and operator alike.