Lidocaine Eye Drops For Ophthalmic Postherpetic Neuralgia

Xylocaine 4% eye drops (AstraZeneca) can bring down eye pain in post shingles eye pain from 5.9/10 to 0.9/10 in 15 minutes, and forehead pain from 6.3/10 to 2.6/10. This relief can last 8-96 hours in responders.

Anesth Analg. 2010 Mar 17. [Epub ahead of print]
Lidocaine Eye Drops Attenuate Pain Associated with Ophthalmic Postherpetic Neuralgia.
Kanai A, Okamoto T, Suzuki K, Niki Y, Okamoto H, Okamoto H. abstract here

  • 0.4 mL of the 4% Xylocaine drops – I would suggest that commercial product be used as regular lidocaine is very acidic.
  • 60% had initial complete disappearance of pain versus 4% in placebo

Comment – sounds great and may manage on once daily use. I think that this sort of case needs to be followed by an ophthalmologist in case corneal erosions occur.

Any comments?

This entry was posted in neuropathic, post herpetic neuralgia. Bookmark the permalink.

3 Responses to Lidocaine Eye Drops For Ophthalmic Postherpetic Neuralgia

  1. Diane says:

    Can Lidocaine eye drops be purchased on line?
    No – and its use needs to be followed by an opthalmologist. There was a case many years ago where a doctor just gave some eye local to an friend. The guy continued to use it for months without having the cause checked and ended up suing the doctor…

  2. Pingback: Treatment of Opthalmic Branch Post-Herpetic Neuralgia with Blocks | Pain Medical Musing

  3. Pingback: Upper Facial Post Shingles Pains – Blocks | Pain Medical Musing

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.