Does amethocaine gel influence blood results obtained from capillary sampling?

Unlabelled: In many children routine blood samples are obtained by capillary sampling, a technique that appears to cause high levels of pain and distress in the child. Topical anaesthesia might alleviate the pain associated with capillary blood sampling but would it affect the blood sample?

Aim: a preliminary study to determine whether topical local anaesthetic would affect the values of commonly performed biochemical tests

Method: 22 healthy adult volunteers were recruited; each volunteer acted as his or her own control. Ametop was applied to a socially clean digit and covered with an occlusive dressing.