A Comparative study on the efficacy of topical anaesthetic creams for fractional microneedling in acne scars

Abstract

Acne scars are one of the commonest skin diseases encountered in clinical practice. Management of acne scars ranges from simple subcision to laser resurfacing. Topical anaesthetics can provide, non invasive mode of adequate analgesia for the management of acne scars. In a properly selected patient setting, this can even replace the need of lignocaine infiltration. Commonly available local anaesthetics creams are Eutectic mixture of local anaesthetics (EMLA) (2.5% Lignocaine and 2.5% Prilocaine) and Lignocaine Tetracaine cream (LT) (7%Lignoaine and & 7% Tetracaine). To compare the anaesthetic efficacy of topical creams in the management of acne scars. This study enrolled 20 cases of acne scars planned for Microneedling, of which 10 patients received EMLA cream (group A) and 10 patients received LT cream (group B). Pain perception was recorded with Visual Analog Scale (VAS) at 30 minutes after application of the cream and during the procedure (60 minutes after cream application). Patient preference about the topical creams was asked for the next procedure. The mean pain score after 30 minutes was 3.1 for group A and 2.1 for group B. The pain score recorded during the procedure was 2.1 for group A and 0.6 for group B. Patients had minimal and transient side effects. LT cream provided adequate and long lasting analgesia when compared to EMLA cream.