Patient tolerance during outpatient flexible cystoscopy--a prospective, randomized, double-blind study comparing plain lubrication and lidocaine gel.

Objective: To compare the tolerance of flexible cystoscopy with topical anesthetic versus simple lubrication when the assigned lubricant is instilled 5 min before the exploration.

Material And Methods: A total of 185 consecutive patients were randomly assigned either to simple lubrication (Group 1) or to lidocaine hydrochloride gel (Group 2). Thirteen patients had some kind of difficulty during exploration (stenosis) that required additional manipulation or electrocoagulation for small relapses and were excluded from the final analysis, leaving 172 patients suitable for inclusion.