Lidocaine May Mean Gentler Mammogram
The topical pain drug could help many women who fear the test will hurt.
July 22, 2008— -- Derinda Rapp, a 60-year-old woman from Emmett, Idaho, dreads one event each year more than almost anything else: her annual mammogram.
"I have very sensitive breasts that are good-sized and it's quite painful -- very painful, actually -- to have it put in 'the vise,'" Rapp explained. "On a scale from one to 10, the pain is a nine for me, and I usually have pain in my breasts for up to two days afterwards."
But two years ago, Rapp said she had the first mammogram of her life that was 100 percent pain-free.
The reason? Rapp was participating in a study out of St. Luke's Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise, Idaho, that tested an over-the-counter anesthetic called lidocaine gel for reducing some of the breast pain and discomfort caused by mammograms.
Lidocaine gel is already used to help reduce pain in other minor procedures such as IV injections, but has never been offered as a pain reliever to women undergoing mammography.
The researchers studied 418 women who said that they expected pain and discomfort from their mammograms. Women involved received either a placebo gel or pre-mammogram over-the-counter painkillers such as Tylenol, either with or without the addition of lidocaine gel.
They found that while painkillers did not reduce any of the breast discomfort experienced by the study subjects, women who received the lidocaine gel said they experienced less pain and discomfort. In fact, researchers found that the use of lidocaine gel reduced pain and discomfort by about 20 percent in these women.
Rapp, who happened to be in the group of women receiving the lidocaine gel, said her only disappointment from participating in this study is that she wished she would have known to use lidocaine gel during her mammograms much earlier.
"It was the first mammogram in my life which gave me no pain at all. Not during it, not after it -- was wonderful," Rapp said. "I will absolutely get a tube of it for the next mammogram. Had I known it was that simple, I would have done it a long time ago."
