A prospective randomised controlled trial to investigate the effect of local anaesthetic in vivo on cell culture.

Cell culture is an important adjunct in the management of major burns in that it enables keratinocytes derived from the patient to be grown and used to attain cover when there is little autologous skin available. The purpose of this prospective randomised trial was to determine if the type of local anaesthetic used to harvest the skin biopsy in vivo affected the subsequent culture of keratinocytes. Lignocaine 1% was compared with a eutectic mixture of local anaesthetic (EMLA) and a control.