Topical Anesthetic Can Reduce Pain From Intravitreal Injection

Application of topical anesthetic drops may be more effective at reducing pain caused by intravitreal injection, according to an OSN SuperSite report.


Gregory R. Blaha, MD, PhD, one of the study's authors, said in an interview with Ocular Surgery News that while intravitreal injection is common, there is no consensus on the best way to make the patient comfortable.

The prospective, masked study used a randomized block design to assign 24 patients to a unique schedule of anesthetic agents. Patients received four intravitreal injections after receiving one of four types of anesthesia: 0.5 percent proparacaine, 0.5 percent tetracaine, a pledget of 4 percent lidocaine and a subconjunctival injection of 2 percent lidocaine.

Immediately following the injection, patients graded their pain on a scale of zero to 10 for each of the two portions of the procedure (anesthesia and injection). The study found that the pain scores for anesthesia and injection were lowest with topical anesthetics.

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