Analgesic gel cuts down pain from skin glue that repair children's cuts

Skin glue has become the accepted method for stitching together kid’s cuts at hospital emergency rooms.  While they are considerably less painful than sutures, they can still cause a significant amount of discomfort to children, doctors say.

 

Researchers from the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario tried to find out if the process would be less painful if the area was first covered with a painkilling gel or topical analgesic and undertook a study using 221 children from the ages of three months to 17, with the affected area in 50 percent of the youngsters being applied with a preparation of lidocaine-epinephrine-tetracaine.

 

On average the preparation reduced the pain caused by the skin glue quite considerably, with 51 percent feeling no pain whatsoever. Given the evidence that suggests that children who undergo medical procedures that cause them pain become adults who are fearful of hospitals and doctors, the move toward reducing pain in treatments such as these is being widely recognized as important.