FDA warns against lidocaine for relieving mammography-related pain

January 21, 2009 Diagnostic Imaging. FDA warns against lidocaine for relieving mammography-related pain By James Brice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The FDA has issued an advisory warning physicians and patients about potential health risks from topical anesthetic lidocaine used to reduce the discomfort of mammography. The potential value of lidocaine was the subject of a study published in the September 2008 issue of Radiology (2008;248(3):765-771). Dr. Colleen K. Lambertz and colleagues at St. Luke's Mountain States Tumor Institute in Boise, ID, found in an evaluation of 418 women that nonprescription 4% lidocaine gel spread on the subjects' breasts, then covered with a plastic wrap before imaging, was significantly more effective than oral administration of acetaminophen or ibuprofen for reducing the discomfort of breast compression during mammography.

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