topical anesthetic effect of emla and iranian products in preventing pain during intravenous blood sampling procedures: a double-blind randomized clinical trial

conclusions 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. results 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. objectives 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. patients and methods 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. background 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.