What is it about?
Hemodialysis, a process in which blood is filtered outside of the body, is a common treatment for people whose kidneys do not work properly. Before hemodialysis, two needles must be placed in the patient’s arm. To relieve the pain and stress of having these needles placed, a numbing tape can be applied to the skin. Unfortunately, numbing tapes do not fully relieve the pain because tape does not absorb into the skin. We tested if a numbing cream, which does absorb into the skin, would relieve the pain more effectively. Our study found that numbing cream is better than numbing tape at reducing the pain of having needles placed before hemodialysis treatment.
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Photo by Niko Azhari Hidayat on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The number of patients who receive hemodialysis treatment is predicted to significantly increase worldwide. The reduction of pain during this procedure is therefore an important issue for patients globally.
Perspectives
I hope that the results of this study will help patients experience less pain when having needles placed before hemodialysis treatment.
Keiji Fujimoto
Department of Nephrology, Kanazawa Medical University School of Medicine, Ishikawa, Japan
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comparison of the pain-reducing effects of EMLA cream and of lidocaine tape during arteriovenous fistula puncture in patients undergoing hemodialysis: A multi-center, open-label, randomized crossover trial, PLoS ONE, March 2020, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0230372.
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