Abstract
Background
Taking a sample of arterial blood is widely reported as a cause of significant pain.
Objectives
To compare three anesthetic methods with standard practice (no anesthesia) to establish
which was the most effective in reducing pain caused by radial artery puncture in
patients requiring an arterial blood gas test in the emergency department (ED).
Methods
A randomized controlled trial was conducted to compare the effectiveness between anesthetic
cream, cryoanalgesia, and subcutaneous mepivacaine in reducing pain caused by radial
artery puncture in ED patients.
Results
After comparing perceived pain during arterial puncture, the lowest median score was
obtained in the mepivacaine group (1 interquartile range 0.6–1.3) and the highest
median score in the control group (5 interquartile range 4.0–7.0). When comparing
the control group with the three intervention groups, the Kruskal-Wallis test showed
that mepivacaine (p = 0.023) and cryoanalgesia (p = 0.012) were associated with significantly lower pain scores. The anesthetic cream
(p = 0.861) intervention group did not produce a statistically significant median difference
compared with the control group.
Conclusions
The results of this study encourage the use of anesthetic methods like cryoanalgesia
or mepivacaine for their proven effectiveness in reducing or eliminating pain during
arterial puncture.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 27, 2020
Accepted:
March 18,
2020
Received in revised form:
March 5,
2020
Received:
November 3,
2019
Identification
Copyright
© 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
ScienceDirect
Access this article on ScienceDirectLinked Article
- Pain Relief in Arterial SamplingJournal of Emergency MedicineVol. 60Issue 3
- PreviewI have read with interest the recent article, “Reducing Pain During Emergency Arterial Sampling Using Three Anesthetic Methods: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial” by Nicola Pagnucci et al. (1). This article is a well-designed randomized controlled trial and very important for emergency departments (EDs) and intensive care units. Although pain is the most common reason to apply to EDs, administration of analgesics is delayed or adequate pain medication is not applied in procedural interventions (2,3).
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