The lidocaine patch: Features and applications: Post-thoracotomy pain and beyond

The chapter goes on to discuss the efficacy of Lidocaine 5% patch in adjunction to standard analgesic treatments for reducing acute post-operative pain, opioid consumption, and length of hospital stay. A systematic review of literature was performed and 10 papers were selected to investigate this issue. The results were difficult to compare due to the different surgical populations, and the lack of a standard protocol for measuring post-operative pain and for postoperative analgesia. Despite all, Lidocaine patch seemed to not provide any significant benefits as it significantly reduced postoperative pain in seven papers, while in all papers but two it was not associated with a reduction of opioid consumption neither of hospital stay. However, it remained a safe procedure as no specific side effects were found in all studies. Future larger and well-designed studies are needed to better clarify the efficacy of Lidocaine patch for treating acute postoperative pain.