Background: Chalazia are not uncommon in children. If conservative therapy for them fails, incision and drainage are necessary and usually require a general anesthetic, which increases costs and risks.
Patients and methods: Five children (3 to 8 years old) had a eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine applied to the skin of the eyelid for 1 hour. Then local anesthetic was injected into the same site.
Results: The local anesthetic injection was painless, permitting successful incision and drainage in all cases.
Conclusion: Lidocaine-prilocaine cream permits local anesthetic injection into the eyelids, facilitating office-based management of chalazia in children.