The following is a summary of “Pain of local anesthetic injection of lidocaine during subsequent stages of Mohs micrographic surgery: A multicenter prospective cohort study,” published in the JULY 2023 issue of Dermatology by Dirr, et al.

Patients undergoing staged cutaneous surgery procedures may experience pain during local anesthetic injections. For a study, researchers sought to determine if the level of pain associated with local anesthetic injections before each stage of Mohs surgery increases with subsequent stages.

A multicenter longitudinal cohort study was conducted. Adult patients undergoing Mohs surgery requiring multiple stages at two academic medical centers were included. Patients rated the pain experienced after each anesthetic injection using a visual analog scale (1-10).

A total of 259 adult patients were enrolled, and 511 stages of Mohs surgery were analyzed after excluding stages with complete anesthesia from prior stages. The mean visual analog scale pain ratings for subsequent stages of Mohs surgery were nominally but not significantly different (stage 1: 2.5; stage 2: 2.5; stage 3: 2.7; stage 4: 2.8; stage 5: 3.2; P = .770). Moderate pain was experienced by 37-44% of patients and severe pain by 9.5-12.5%, with no significant differences between the first and subsequent stages (P > .05).

Patients did not report a significant increase in pain associated with anesthetic injections during subsequent stages of Mohs surgery.

Source: jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(23)00361-4/fulltext