ABSTRACT
Today no method of topical anesthesia for intravitreal injection administration has been proven to make the patient comfortable yet. We compared the efficacy of topical levobupivacaine 0.75% and proparacaine 0.5% in patients undergoing intravitreal injections. A prospective, randomized study comparing two agents for topical anesthesia in intravitreal injections. Ninety-six consecutive patients were enrolled into two groups to receive either topical levobupivacaine 0.75% [n=48] or proparacaine 0.5% [n=48]. Patients were asked to score their pain using a visual analog scale [VAS] immediately following the injection. The average of these scores was used as the primary outcome. The surgeon performing the procedure scored his perception of the patients' pain using the Wong-Baker FACES scale. Mean VAS pain scores for two groups were found to be 44.77 +/- 16.42 and 34.18 +/- 14.83, respectively. Mean VAS pain score in the proparacaine group was significantly lower than that in the levobupivacaine group [P= 0.003]. Mean Wong-Baker FACES scores for the two groups were 1.08 +/- 0.49 and 1.10 +/- 0.30, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference between levobupivacaine and proparacaine groups [P=0.824]. Topical proparacaine 0.5% was more effective in preventing pain during intravitreal injections.