Comparison of Pain Relief from Intravenous Canulation with Normal, Cold Compression and EMLA methods

Abstract

Most of surgical patients are likely to be canulated with big sized plastic canulation such as 18-20G. Cold compression may relief pain and may be used in patients because cold can increase pain threshold and inhibit pain pathway. The objective of this study was to evaluate efficacy of cold compression to relief pain from intravenous canulation, comparing with local anaesthetic cream: EMLA^®. It was conducted as a prospective randomized controlled trial in operating room of Yasothorn Hospital. Sixty operating patients requiring intravenous canulation were randomly assigned into 3 groups of 20 patients each: (1) group 1, the study group, applied a cold pack gel to dorsal aspect of patient’s hand; group 2 applied EMLA^®; and group 3 was the control. All patients were canulated with 18G needle plastic catheter. The visual analogue scores was used for pain score recording. All data was recorded and analysed under SPSS. It was found that the pain scores were not significantly different between the group 1 and the group 2, but were significantly lower than those of the control group. Thus, cold compression and EMLA^® applied before intravenous canulation were both effective for reducing pain from intravenous canulation.