Abstract
An 8% lidocaine pump spray (LPS) was prescribed for 12 trigeminal neuralgia outpatients. They applied it on the painful areas in their mouths as a maximum single dose of up to 3 sprays (24 mg of lidocaine)in intervals of at least 4 hrs. We evaluated the analgesic effect by pain score (PS) measured by a visual analogue scale. LPS significantly decreased the PS from 58 ± 17 mm (mean ± SD) just before application to 5 ± 13 mm at 10 min post application (P<0.01). The effect of LPS persisted for a median of 3.0 hrs (range, 0.5 to 6.0 hrs). Three patients reported oral numbness as a result of LPS, which disappeared without medication. The satisfaction score results consisted of 7 "very satisfied" and 4 "satisfied". The oral application of LPS produced prompt analgesia without serious side effects in the patients with trigeminal neuralgia who had experienced the most severe pain.
