Taddio A, Stevens B, Craig K, Rastogi P, Ben-David S, Shennan A, Mulligan P, Koren G Department of Paediatrics, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Neonatal circumcision is a painful surgical procedure often performed without analgesia.
One gram of lidocaine-prilocaine or placebo cream was applied to the penis under an occlusive dressing for 60 to 80 minutes before circumcision. A total of 68 and 59 neonates were included in the safety and efficacy analyses, respectively. Demographic characteristics such as gestational age and birth weight did not differ between the lidocaine-prilocaine and placebo groups. Lidocaine-prilocaine cream is efficacious and safe for the prevention of pain from circumcision in neonates. Several investigators have independently documented the reliability and safety of local anesthesia in eliminating the pain associated with circumcision.