• Justin Yanuck, Soheil Saadat, Jonathan B Lee, Maxwell Jen, and Bharath Chakravarthy.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, California; Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
• J Emerg Med. 2020 Sep 1; 59 (3): 364-370.

BackgroundMyofascial neck and back pain is an increasingly common chief symptom in the emergency department. Currently, there are no widely accepted conventional therapies, and there is little evidence on the efficacy of interventions such as trigger point injections (TPIs).ObjectiveThis study evaluates whether TPIs with 1% lidocaine can improve myofascial back and neck pain compared with conventional therapies. Secondary outcomes include changes in length of stay and number of opioid prescriptions on discharge.MethodsThis single-center, prospective, randomized, pragmatic trial was carried out in patients clinically determined to have myofascial back or neck pain. Patients were randomized into the experimental arm (TPI with 1% lidocaine) or the control arm (standard conventional approach). Numeric Rating Scores (NRS) for pain and additional surveys were obtained prior to and 20 min after the intervention.ResultsThe NRS for pain was lower in the TPI group compared with the control group after adjustment for initial pain (median difference -3.01; 95% confidence interval -4.20 to -1.83; p < 0.001). Median length of stay was 2.61 h for the TPI group and 4.63 h for the control group (p < 0.001). More patients in the control group (47.4%) were discharged home with an opioid compared with the TPI group (2.9%) (p < 0.001).ConclusionsTPI is an effective method for managing myofascial pain in the emergency department. This study indicates it may improve pain compared with conventional methods, reduce length of stay in the emergency department, and reduce opioid prescriptions on discharge.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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