Comparative study assessing the efficacy of topical lignocaine prilocaine cream vs. lignocaine infiltration for dermatosurgical procedures

Background: Dermatosurgery is one of the fastest expanding subspecialty of dermatology. Local anesthetic agents play an important role in these procedures. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective, interventional study that included eighty patients with forty patients in each group (groups A and B). Group A: Topical 2.5% lignocaine and 2.5% prilocaine cream. Group B: Infiltration of 2% lignocaine Injection. Patients satisfying the inclusion criteria were recruited for the study. The patients were asked to rate pain perception at the time of drug administration and, then, during and after the surgical procedure using a visual, analogue scale separately. Results: In our study, the most common age group at presentation was 21–40 years. Males constituted 57.8%, whereas females constituted 42.2%. The common procedures performed in our study were electrocautery 33.3%, intralesional steroid 18.9%, and intralesional PRP 15.7%. In the topical EMLA cream group, the VAS score during drug administration was 0. In the lignocaine infiltration group, 70% were found to have VAS a score of 4–6, and 30% had a VAS score of 1–3, preprocedurally. The mean VAS score during the procedure was 3.36 for the topical EMLA cream group and 1.33 for the lignocaine infiltration group. The post-procedural VAS score showed similar results as the procedural VAS score. Conclusion: The results of our study showed that topical EMLA cream is a better choice of anesthesia in superficial aesthetic and dermatosurgical procedures in providing adequate analgesia. Key words: Topical anesthesia, EMLA, Lignocaine, Dermatosurgery