Background: Since the patients scheduled for an endoscopic procedure had been unhappy with pain during intravenous cannulation.

Objective: To compare the effectiveness between 5% eutectic mixture of local anesthetic cream and ethyl chloride spray applied on the skin prior to the procedure.

Materials and Methods: One hundred eighty-six patients were randomized equally into three groups, A: 5% eutectic mixture of local anesthetic cream, B: ethyl chloride spray, and C: placebo. Then a nurse used a 22-gauge (22G) needle catheter to administer a cannula. Five minutes after the intravenous cannulation, a co-researcher assessed the patient’s pain perception and satisfaction as well as the nurse’s difficulty in performance by means of a numeric rating scale.

Results: One hundred seventy-six patients completed the present study. Participants having the anesthetic cream and spray application as well as the placebo expressed their pain scores as 1.7±1.3, 1.6±1.2, and 2.2±1.3, respectively. Therefore, patients applied with local anesthetics had significantly less pain perception than those with the placebo (p=0.039); however, scores were not different between the anesthetic cream and the spray groups.

Conclusion: Patients scheduled for an endoscopic procedure did not showed significant pain relief with either the 5% eutectic mixture of local anesthetic cream or the ethyl chloride spray.