Influence Of Size & Site Of Cannulae, Gender And Age On Propofol Injection Pain

Abstract

Introduction: pain anticipated during injection of propofol was and still is a subject for study. Objectives: assessment of propofol injection pain in general and with regard to size and site of cannulation, gender and age. Methodology: this is a randomized prospective single blinded study in which 301 Sudanese patients were studied at KTH in the period between Oct. 2004 to Mar 2005. ASA class I and II non-premedicated patients between the age 18 and 81years scheduled for various elective proceduresunder general anesthesia were cannulated at either a large (antecubital) or Small (dorsal) vein with either size 20, 18 and 16 G iv cannula. Pain was graded according to verbal and numerical rating scales. Results & Conclusions: the incidence of propofol injection pain in general was found to be 43.19 %. The pain incidence decreased significantly when cannulating a large vein (69.01% compared to 30.9% for small veins). The use of a large size cannula significantly decrease the incidence of pain. Gender and age appeared not to influence the incidence of pain in this study. We recommended that the use of a large size cannula inserted at a large vein is a useful mean to reduce the incidence of propofol I injection pain.