Clinical Drug Experience Knowledgebase

The Use of Lignocaine and Bupivacaine Mix in Adult Safe Male Circumcision; Less is More

The objective of this study therefore was to assess self-reported pain and adverse events when using two different concentrations of lignocaine and bupivacaine mixture while performing routine safe medical circumcision (SMC).

Methods Design This was an observational analytical study.

Setting At an urban high volume SMC site in a resource limited setting, over a 6 weeks period.

Participants Adult males aged18 - 49 years presenting for routine voluntary SMC were recruited for enrollment. All men were offered voluntary HIV counseling and testing before the surgery, received group counseling /health education on HIV prevention, were offered HIV testing, individual counseling where necessary to address questions and to clarify any queries, and free condoms were available. All participants were screened for contraindications to SMC such as active sexual transmitted infections (STI), commonly manifesting as urethral discharge or penile ulcers.

Ethical consideration All participants after they were counselled and provided written informed consent. Ethical approval was obtained from the Makerere College of Health Sciences Ethics and Research Committee.

Lignocaine and Bupivacaine (LiB) mixtures and procedure Lignocaine 2% and bupivacaine 0.5% were procured locally, from suppliers licensed and approved by the national drug authority (NDA), and was within the expiry date. The 4-4-2 mix was 4cc of Lignocaine 2%, 4cc of 0.5% bupivacaine and 2cc of water for injection, all drawn into a 10cc syringe. The 3-3-4 mix was 3cc of Lignocaine 2%, 3cc of bupivacaine 0.5% and 4 cc of water for injection.

We assigned participants to the two groups (each group on alternative weeks). We administered additional local analgesia for those who experienced break-through pain during the procedure. We recorded the mix ratio, the time the procedure commenced and ended using a stop clock, presence of break-through pain during SMC, and pain at 30 and 60 minutes after SMC (post-operative). We encouraged clients to report pain and a visual analogue score (VAS) pain chart was used to estimate pain intensity. Post-operative pain was graded as mild if the VAS score were 0-5, moderate if scores were 6-8 and severe if 9-10. We monitored the clients in the recovery room for additional post-operative pain and oral analgesia were given when and if was needed.

Other adverse events: participants were observed for central nervous system (CNS) toxicity, convulsions, coma and respiratory depression and cardiovascular system (CVS) toxicity Bradycardia pulse rate < 60bpm (beats per minute)