Warm lidocaine/tetracaine patch versus placebo before pediatric intravenous cannulation: a randomized controlled trial.

Study Objective: We compare the pain of intravenous (IV) cannulation in pediatric emergency department (ED) patients after applying a topical lidocaine/tetracaine patch versus placebo. We hypothesized that application of the active patch would reduce the pain of IV cannulation by at least 15 mm.

Methods: We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in a suburban academic ED.