Is ethyl chloride effective in pain relief of injections? version 1.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
“ Is ethyl Chloride effective in the pain relief of intra-articular injections to the knee joint?“
IRAS ID
151546
Contact name
Johnathan Smith
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Society of Musculoskeletal Medicine
Research summary
The aim of this research study is to find out if the use of ethyl chloride, a topical anaesthetic spray, applied immediately prior to knee joint injection, is effective in relieving the pain of the procedure. Needle related procedures can cause fear, anxiety and distress and if this proves to be effective this may help all patients in the future and all clinicians may chose to use it. It is common practice for some of our clinicians and consultants to use this spray on their patients prior to injection therapy and others do not, purely dependent on training and historical practice. There is currently little evidence in the literature to prove this one way or the other. I plan to recruit two groups of adults over the age of 18 who would be normally having a knee joint injection for a degenerative condition as part of their normal planned and consented treatment. I hope to recruit up to 20 in each group. One group will receive the spray on the skin prior to injection , the other group will not receive the spray. This spray is a clear colourless liquid that when topically applied to the skin creates instantaneous cooling on the surface of the skin by immediate evaporation of the product. It is sterile. Each subject will rate their pain perception on a scale of 0 to 10 after their injection. 0 being no pain and 10 worst possible pain. The study will take place in our orthopaedic out-patient clinics in our acute hospital. The study should last for about 3 months subject to numbers of patients. \n
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/WM/0157
Date of REC Opinion
3 Jun 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion