Clinical Trial: Vibration-Assisted Anaesthesia

Study Status: Completed
Recruit Status: Completed
Study Type: Interventional

Official Title: Vibration-Assisted Anaesthesia: A Randomised Controlled Trial to Investigate Whether Vibration Reduces the Pain of Anaesthetic Injection in Eyelid Surgery

Brief Summary: Aim of study is to investigate whether a small, non-invasive vibrating device applied to the forehead during local anaesthetic administration reduces the pain of the injection.

Detailed Summary:

Purpose:

To carry out a prospective randomised controlled clinical trial to compare the efficacy of vibration in reducing the pain of local anaesthetic injections into the upper eyelid.

Hypothesis:

Vibration of the adjacent soft tissue reduces the pain of anaesthetic injections in upper eyelid surgery.

Justification:

In many surgical procedures performed under local anaesthetic, the most frightening and painful aspect of the procedure for patients is the anaesthetic injection, and various techniques have been advocated to address this.

Explaining to the patient beforehand what to expect, talking during the injection and hand-holding can be helpful in relaxing and distracting some patients; however, this alone is unlikely to be sufficient to relieve the pain of the injection in most cases.

Simple measures that reduce the pain of anaesthetic injection and are widely practised include administering the injection slowly and using a fine-bore needle (30 Gauge). Other techniques that have been shown to be effective include warming or buffering the local anaesthetic [1-6]. The use of 0.9% bacteriostatic saline solution in conjunction with lidocaine has been demonstrated to significantly reduce patients' perceived pain during the injection and operative procedure in eyelid surgery [7].

Cooling the skin immediately prior to treatment has been shown to reduce the pain of dermatological laser procedures [8-10] although this might be difficult to perform around the eyes because of the risk of injuring the cornea. Similarly, topical anaesthe
Sponsor: University of British Columbia

Current Primary Outcome: Patients' verbal pain scores will be elicited and documented immediately by the oculoplastic fellow. [ Time Frame: Immediately ]

Original Primary Outcome: Same as current

Current Secondary Outcome:

Original Secondary Outcome:

Information By: University of British Columbia

Dates:
Date Received: November 18, 2008
Date Started: October 2008
Date Completion:
Last Updated: April 2, 2009
Last Verified: April 2009