Prevention of propofol pain: a comparative study.

A common drawback of propofol is pain on injection and lignocaine is commonly mixed with propofol to reduce the incidence and severity of this pain. In this study we sought to draw a comparison between the effectiveness of propofol medium chain and long chain triglyceride (MCT/LCT) alone, propofol medium chain and long chain triglyceride (MCT/LCT) premixed with lignocaine, and propofol long chain triglyceride (LCT) premixed with lignocaine, in preventing propofol pain on injection. 300 patients were randomly divided into three equal groups. Group A received propofol-MCT/LCT premixed with normal saline, Group B received propofol-MCT/LCT premixed with 20 mg lignocaine and Group C received propofol-LCT premixed with 20 mg lignocaine. The incidence of pain in Group A was 63% compared to 15% in Group B (X2 = 48.242, p < 0.001), whereas in Group C the incidence of pain was 24% compared to 63% in Group A (X2 = 30.247, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in incidence of pain between Groups B and C (X2 = 2.5, p = 0.11). To conclude, propofol MCT/LCT alone provides no advantage to reduce pain on injection in comparison to propofol MCT/LCT premixed with lignocaine and propofol LCT premixed with lignocaine. Also, there is no significant difference in pain on injection between propofol LCT and propofol MCT/LCT as soon as lignocaine is added.

RCT Entities:   Population Interventions Outcomes