A Comparison of Three Local Anaesthetic Techniques for Skin Biopsy in Dogs.

Abstract- Three local anaesthetic preparations (one per cent lignocaine, one per cent lignocaine with 1 in 100 000 adrenaline, both administered by subcutaneous infiltration, and a novel topically-active eutectic mixture of lignocaine and prilocaine called EMLA cream) were assessed for their effectiveness as analgesic agents for skin biopsy in each of 25 dogs with skin disease. One dog would not accept application of the EMLA cream but otherwise all three agents were well tolerated. While the lignocaine and lignocaine/ adrenaline combination gave comparable and effective results in all dogs, analgesia using EMLA was assessed as good, moderate or poor in 37.