Vocal local is as effective as pharmacological treatments for pain management of tubal ligation procedures in rural Kenya

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, the provision of analgesics during tubal ligation procedures can be expensive, subject to frequent stock-outs, and associated with potential side effects. The majority of women undergoing tubal ligations in low resource settings will receive a combination of vocal local (VL) – a non-pharmacological pain management technique, local anaesthetic (LA) and analgesics. However, in these settings Marie Stopes International (MSI) offers women the option to substitute analgesics for the non-pharmacological pain management technique known as vocal local. No study has so far rigorously evaluated whether this technique is an effective substitution for pain management.