Objective To prospectively evaluate the ef®cacy and safety of periprostatic local anaesthesia (LA) during prostatic biopsy guided by transrectal ultrasonography (TRUS), as 20±65% of men report moderate to severe pain, and there is anecdotal and published evidence that periprostatic anaesthesia improves patients' tolerance. Patients and methods In all, 157 patients were prospectively recruited and sequentially randomized to receive either LA or no anaesthesia. Sextant biopsies were taken in all men but some had more than six biopsies. All were asked to complete questionnaires immediately after TRUS-guided biopsy and for the subsequent week, giving pain scores and recording any morbidity, including symptoms of infection; analgesic use was also surveyed. Results Patients given LA had signi®cantly lower pain scores at the time of biopsy than those given no anaesthesia, with median (SD) pain scores of 1.53 (0.7) and 1.95 (0.65) (P<0.001), respectively. In addition, there was a trend towards less analgesic use by those given LA, although this was not statistically signi®cant. There was no difference in the amount of haematuria, haematochezia or haematospermia, or infection rate, between the groups. The additional cost and time of the procedure was minimal (£3.00 and 3 min/per patient, respectively). Conclusion Periprostatic LA in®ltration is a quick and simple procedure which signi®cantly improves immediate pain with no added morbidity; we strongly advocate its use to improve patient tolerance of TRUS-guided prostate biopsy.

contribution of local anaesthetic (LA) injection to bleeding rates was also assessed. RESULTSOf 1384 patients biopsied, 1000 were given questionnaires and 884 (88%) forms were returned. Of these, 760 were suitable for analysis (307 after six-core, 325 eight-core and 128 12-core biopsies); 351 patients were given LA before biopsy. The prevalence of bleeding complications (six-, eight-and 12-core, respectively) was: haematuria 44%, 41% and 39%; haematospermia 13%, 16% and 12%; and rectal bleeding 17%, 26% and 27%. Rectal bleeding was significantly more prevalent in the eight-and 12-core groups ( P = 0.0037 and 0.019). The duration of bleeding was not significantly greater in any biopsy group. Subgroup analysis showed no significant difference in the prevalence and duration of rectal bleeding after LA. About 5% of patients in each group consulted their GP because of a complication and 2.4% consulted because of bleeding. Three men with major complications required hospitalization, of which only one was caused by bleeding. CONCLUSIONSOnly rectal bleeding was more prevalent after taking more than six cores, but the duration was no greater. Giving LA did not affect the rectal bleeding rate. With all strategies the major complication and hospitalization rate was very low.

Introduction of radiological guidelines together with feedback on referral rates was effective in reducing the number of requests for spinal examinations over one year. Wider use of GP-orientated guidelines with regular updating and feedback might save costs and reduce unnecessary irradiation of patients.

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Long and short acting local anesthetics together significantly attenuate the 1-hour rebound increase in pain scores seen after short acting anesthesia alone. Improved pain scores were sustained during the subsequent week and we advocate routine combination use for transrectal ultrasound guided prostate biopsy.