Amethocaine versus EMLA for successful intravenous cannulation in a children's emergency department: a randomised controlled study

Abstract

Amethocaine is not more successful than EMLA for first attempt intravenous cannulation in a children's emergency department.

Does topical Amethocaine cream increase first-time successful cannulation in children compared with a eutectic mixture of local anaesthetics (EMLA) cream? A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials

“…Finally, three RCTs were included in this review: Van Kan et al, 13 Arendts et al 4 and Newbury and Herd 14. The key features of the three included studies are summarised in table 2.…”

“…Newbury and Herd left each cream for the recommended times of 45 min for Amethocaine and 90 min for EMLA. Although this compromised the blinding of the cannulator, it is unlikely that knowledge of which cream was used would cause the cannulator, subconsciously or consciously, to fail to cannulate when possible 14. In contrast, Arendts et al left both creams for 1 h while Van Kan et al left Amethocaine for 30 min and EMLA for 60 min.…”

Cost benefit analysis of amethocaine (Ametop) compared with EMLA for intravenous cannulation in a children's emergency department

“…Probabilities were sourced from three clinical trials; the topical amethocaine versus EMLA (TAVE) randomised controlled trial6; a prospective audit of intravenous cannulation7; and an internal audit of topical anaesthetic use.…”

First‐time success with needle procedures was higher with a warm lidocaine and tetracaine patch than an eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine cream

“…When it came to the influence of different local anaesthetics on the needle procedure success rate, specific comparisons were only available for tetracaine gel and EMLA cream and these showed that tetracaine gel did not significantly increase the successful first-time cannulation rate compared to EMLA cream (21,22).…”