• Alex Latev, Jesse Baer, Shellyann Sharpe, Chiraag Gupta, Carmen Feliciano, and Benjamin W Friedman.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, Montefiore Medical Center, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York.
• J Emerg Med. 2022 Mar 1; 62 (3): 291-297.

BackgroundIncision and drainage (I&D) of abscesses is one of the most painful procedures performed in emergency departments (EDs).ObjectiveWe tested the following hypothesis: The addition of intranasal fentanyl to the standard practice of local infiltration with lidocaine would provide better pain control than lidocaine alone for adult ED patients undergoing I&D.MethodsThis was a randomized, double-blind study. Participants received 2 μg/kg of intranasal fentanyl or a comparable amount of intranasal water in addition to local lidocaine infiltration. The primary outcome, which we assessed immediately after the I&D was completed, was a summary 0-10 pain score for which we asked study subjects to provide a number depicting their entire experience with the procedure.ResultsDuring a 19-month enrollment period, we screened 176 patients for eligibility and enrolled 49; 25 received placebo and 24 received fentanyl. Baseline characteristics were comparable. Mean (standard deviation) summary pain scores were as follows: fentanyl 6.2 (3.3) and placebo 7.0 (3.2). The 95% confidence interval for a rounded between-group difference of 0.9 was -1.1 to 2.6.ConclusionsIn this small study, the addition of intranasal fentanyl did not substantially impact the pain scores of ED patients undergoing I&D.Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Inc.

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