A crying, stressful child opposing the injection is the common incident in a physician’s clinic. Children are often under tremendous stress and refuse to cooperate with physicians just because of the fear of the needles. Will topical anesthetist be helpful in treating such patients? Many studies have shown that approximately 70% of children feel stress, fear or anxiety prior to venipuncture. Both patients and their parents become agitated and request the physicians for an alternate mode of delivery.
However, not all the time physicians can opt for an alternative. Especially, in the procedures for critical diagnosis such as intravenous cannulation, lumbar puncture there is no alternative. In this situations anesthesia is recommended so that the child does not have the long-term memory of such procedures associated with pain. Topical anesthetics provide benefit and should be complimented…
