• L Trentin and M Visentin.
• Servizio di Terapia del Dolore e Cure Palliative, Ospedale S. Bortolo di Vicenza, ASL 6 Veneto.
• Minerva Anestesiol. 2000 Mar 1; 66 (3): 157-61; discussion 162.

BackgroundIn daily practice, the intravenous lidocaine drip has been introduced as a predictive test for subsequent oral treatment with adjuvant drugs (anti-depressants, channel blockers and anti-convulsants). Our aim is the assessment of the correlation between the test response and the effectiveness of the consequent oral drug therapy.Methods183 inpatients (central and peripheral neuropathic pain), treated between 1996-1997, were retrospectively checked. The trial was conducted as follows: a VAS reading > 5 was taken; a subsequent continuous i.v. lidocaine drip was given, at a dose of 4 mg/kg, in saline solution; a VAS reading was taken before (VAS 0), every 5 minutes, and at the end of the drip (VAS 1); the results of the drip were to be considered positive where pain relief was > or = 50%; irrespective of test results, all patients were given a different follow-up drug therapy; a VAS reading was taken one month after the drug therapy (VAS 2).ResultsEighty-five patients (90%), responders to lidocaine, had a pain relief and 71 patients (85%), no responders to lidocaine, did not have improvement by taking oral drugs.ConclusionsIn agreement with a other authors, we also noted that there was a statistically significant correlation between the results obtained and the therapy prescribed; the usefulness of a lidocaine drip as routine procedure to predict the therapeutic response of neuropathic pain to adjuvant analgesics is underlined.

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