PAIN ON INJECTION OF PROPOFOL - A COMPARISON OF COLD PROPOFOL WITH PROPOFOL PREMIXED WITH LIGNOCAINE

Propofol is frequently associated with pain on injection. Previous stu dies have suggested that chilling of the propofol decreases pain signi ficantly. This prospective, randomised, double-blind trial was designe d to assess the effectiveness of cold propofol compared with propofol premixed with lignocaine in minimising pain on injection. Patients wer e allocated to one of four groups: propofol + lignocaine 0.1 mg.kg(-1) , propofol + Lignocaine 0.2 mg.kg(-1), cold propofol and a control gro up consisting of propofol premixed with normal saline and maintained a t room temperature. The results of this study show that cold propofol is associated with a very high incidence of injection pain while ligno caine 0.1 mg.kg(-1) premixed with propofol significantly decreases the incidence of pain (p < 0.001). Increasing the dosage of lignocaine ab ove 0.1 mg.kg(-1), however, does not significantly decrease the incide nce of pain further. The addition of lignocaine also significantly dec reases the incidence of excitatory side-effects.