Background: Local anesthetic is one of the major ways to obtain satisfactory anesthesia in majority of plastic surgical procedures.
Objectives: To compare the effect on pain while injecting buffered vs nonbuffered local anesthetic.
Materials and methods: The single-blind, split-scalp study was conducted in 25 patients undergoing first hair transplant surgery after informed consent and ethics committee approval using two solutions. Solution A was composed of normal saline (200 mL), 2% lidocaine (40 mL), 1 mL of epinephrine 1:1000, and triamcinolone acetate (40 mg). Solution B was composed of normal saline (200 mL), 2% lidocaine (40 mL), 1 mL of epinephrine 1:1000, triamcinolone acetate (40 mg), and 8.4% soda bicarbonate (5 mL). A 3-mL syringe with 30-G needle was used. On one side of the scalp, solution A was used and solution B on the other side. The pain response was recorded using Wong-Baker Faces Pain Scale corresponding to 0-10 scale. The data were analyzed statistically. No preoperative analgesic was used in any patient. The injections were administered by the 2nd author.
Results: A total of 25 patients were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 33.4 years (range; 28 to 41 years). The average pain score was 4.96 (range, 3-7) with solution A whereas 3.28 (range, 2-6) using the solution B (P < .05). Eleven of the patients (44%) were smokers. The average pain score in smokers was 5.82 with solution A and 3.73 with solution B. The pain score in nonsmokers was 4.29 with solution A and 2.93 with solution B (P < .05).
Keywords: alkalization; buffering; hair restoration; local anaesthesia.
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