Topical anaesthetics

Topical anaesthetics are used to decrease the pain associated with superficial dermatological, aesthetic, and laser procedures. Different products are available. At present, we prefer to use Eutectic Mixture of Local Anaesthetics (EMLA), a mixture of lidocaine 25 mg/g and prilocaine 25 mg/g, for inducing local anaesthesia for superficial interventions in children. EMLA is the only topical anaesthetic registered for use in children from the age of 3 months. Factors that should be considered to reduce the risk of adverse effects associated with the use of topical anaesthetics include the amount of product used, body location, size of the surface area, and duration of product application. Adverse outcomes are associated with the use of compounded products, often non-FDA-approved, that have inappropriately high anaesthetic concentrations and with the use of topical anaesthetics on excessively large skin surface areas, for example, during laser treatments.

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