Radial ABG Sampling: A RCT of Lidocaine Local Anaesthesia

Arterial Blood Gas (ABG) sampling is a common procedure in all hospitals worldwide. Often, ABG samples are obtain from inserting a needle into the radial artery at the wrist - this procedure is often painful and dreaded by patients. Therefore, some doctors use local anaesthetic but others argue that it makes the procedure more difficult and causes pain itself. The use of local anaesthetic costs approximately £1 per injection and when thousands of ABGs are performed per month, the cost is easily appreciable. However, there is no good research to guide clinicians in the use or omission of local anaesthetic for ABGs. This is the first randomised clinical trial to assess the efficacy of injected local anaesthetic on the perceived pain of radial artery puncture.