More needles less pain: the use of local anaesthesia during emergency arterial sampling

Conclusions Our results demonstrated that British Thoracic Society guidelines are not followed across the four hospitals. Despite the acknowledgment of arterial sampling being a painful procedure and the belief that patients should be offered LA at least “sometimes”, over half of the respondents never use it. Addressing the above-mentioned issues by introducing local guidelines and teaching sessions, as well as making LA more available, will help make this practice routine.
Source: Journal of Acute Disease - Category: Emergency Medicine Source Type: research