Intra-arterial lidocaine administration during uterine fibroid embolization to reduce the immediate postoperative pain: a prospective randomized study

Background: To investigate if intra-arterial lidocaine administrated immediately after the embolisation endpoint reduces the pain. Methods: Forty patients were randomised and 36 completed the study for purposes of analysis. In one group, the patients got 1% 10ml lidocaine (100mg) administered into each uterine artery immediately after embolisation with microspheres. The other group was embolised without supplementary lidocaine. The patients scored their pain on a visual analogue scale (VAS) 2h, 4h, 7h, 10h and 24h after embolisation, and the total amount of used morphine was noted. Three-month follow-up MRI control was scheduled for all the patients to investigate the infarction rate.ResultsEmbolisation was performed without any complications and with embolisation of both uterine arteries in all cases. Intra-arterial lidocaine was administered in all 20 patients without complications, and 20 patients in a control group did not receive lidocaine intra-arterial. VAS schemes showed a significant reduction in pain experience 2h after UFE where mean pain score in the lidocaine group was 42.721.4 compared with the control group in which the mean pain score was 61.1 +/- 20.4 (p<0.02). There was no significant difference in pain score 4h, 7h, 10h and 24h after UFE. In the lidocaine group, the mean amount of used morphine was significantly less with 11.2mg compared with 20.2mg in the control group (p<0.03). Three months of MR follow-up control showed no significant difference in the grade of fibroid infarction. Conclusion: Intra-arterial Lidocaine administration after embolisation is safe and effective in reducing post-procedural pain in the early hours and opioid usage in the first 24h following UAE.