Clinical Use of Lidocaine and Tetracaine Ointment: Evaluation of Local Anesthesia for Venepuncture

The potential of a local anesthetic ointment formulation (lidocaine and tetracaine) to provide topical anesthesia of the intact skin for venepuncture was investigated. The ointment (1g) was applied one hour before intravenous cannulation to 20 adults and 15 children. The topical anesthetic effect of this ointment was evaluated by pain score and existence of complications. No patient reported unusual sensation and analgesia was satisfactory for 80% of these patients. We measured plasma levels of lidocaine in 16 patients. No remarkable increase in plasma lidocaine levels was observed in any patient, and the range was between 0-0.1μg/ml. These findings suggest that lidocaine and tetracaine ointment are useful in decreasing pain of venepuncture.