Warming pain injections can reduce pain
Local anesthetics are supposed to reduce pain, but the shots themselves can be painful -- sometimes quite painful. But the pain can be reduced substantially by the simple expedient of warming the painkiller before performing the injection, researchers reported Tuesday. The painkillers are normally kept cold to preserve them.
Dr. Anna Taddio of the University of Toronto and her colleagues reviewed 18 studies involving a total of 831 patients. They reported online in the Annals of Emergency Medicine that warming the injections before administering them consistently produced a “clinically meaningful reduction in pain†regardless of how the shot was administered or how large an injection was given.
Injections were warmed using controlled water baths, incubators, fluid warmers, baby food warmers, a warming tray and a syringe warmer. In some cases, emergency physicians simply warmed the syringes in their hands first.
“Warming an injection is a cost-free step that emergency physicians can take to reduce pain from a shot,†Taddio said in a statement. “Patients often dread the sight of a needle, but doing something as simple as warming the injection to body temperature can make a painful part of an emergency department visit more tolerable.†The technique could be especially valuable for giving shots to small children, she added.
