Topical Anesthetic Effect of EMLA and Iranian Products in Preventing Pain During Intravenous Blood Sampling Procedures: a Double-Blind Randomized Clinical Trial

The patients’ concerns about injection pain can cause some unwanted adverse reactions such as hypotension, vasovagal shock, syncope, and unconsciousness. Therefore, using a skin anesthetic can facilitate performing many medical procedures. This double-blind randomized clinical trial was designed to compare the anesthetic effect of topical EMLA 5% cream with Iranian lidocaine 5% and benzocaine 5% creams. Sixty-four healthy volunteers were randomly allocated into two groups. In each individual, EMLA cream and one of Iranian topical anesthetic products, namely lidocaine 5% and benzocaine 5%, were tested. One hour before blood sampling, a predetermined amount of A or B cream was used on the right cubital fossa and the same amount of C or D cream on the left cubital fossa. Blood sampling was done via cubital fossa veins with a 2 cc syringe. The pain of blood sampling was recorded using visual analogue scale (VAS). Data were analyzed by student t-test and ANOVA using SPSS version 11. At the end of study, the EMLA products (A and B) caused a significant decrease in pain (P < 0.05) in comparison with the products C (lidocaine) and D (benzocaine) while there was no differences between benzocaine and lidocaine. In this study, no significant side effect was observed. Although the results of this study showed superiority of application of EMLA cream as a topical anesthetic for pain relief of blood sampling, both lidocaine 5% and benzocaine 5% offer considerable efficacy in pain relief of venipuncture.