Posted by Todd (64.34.202.197) on May 06, 2001 at 11:13:54:
Okay, so it was on migraineurs (like most HA studies), but since some clusterheads use lidocaine I thought it was interesting.
Intranasal Lidocaine Found Ineffective for Immediate Relief of Migraine
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Apr 26 - Intranasal lidocaine was no more effective than placebo in patients treated at two emergency departments of hospitals in Akron, Ohio.
Dr. Michelle Blanda, of Summa Health System, and associates randomly assigned 27 patients to receive 1 mL of 4% lidocaine intranasally on the side(s) of the headache location and 22 to receive normal saline. As reported in Academic Emergency Medicine for April, all subjects were also given 10 mg prochlorperazine IV.
Two lidocaine-treated patients and three placebo-treated patients experienced "immediate successful pain relief" — either a decrease of at least 50% of the initial pain score or an absolute pain score of 2.5 cm or less according to a 10-cm visual analog scale after 5 minutes. The average decreases in pain intensity scores were not significantly different between the two groups over the 30-minute trial.
"Our results do not support a recommendation for using intranasal lidocaine in the emergency department for immediate relief of headache," Dr. Blanda's team concludes.
Acad Emerg Med 2001;8:337-342.