Topical lignocaine anaesthesia for oropharyngeal sampling for COVID-19

• DOI: 10.1007/s00405-020-06402-z
• Publication Date: 2020-10-01T12:03:19Z
• Authors: Anupam Kanodia; Deepankar Srigyan; Kapil Sikka; Aashish Choudhary; Avinash Choudekar; Saurabh Mittal; Shweta Arun Bhopale; Lalit Dar; Alok Thakar
• Keywords: Adult; SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Lidocaine; Oropharynx; General Medicine; Miscellaneous; 3. Good health; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Otorhinolaryngology; Humans; RNA, Viral; Anesthesia

To ascertain if topical lignocaine application in oropharynx prior to swab sampling test for COVID-19 improves a patient's comfort and assess its effect on the sample taken conduct RT-PCR. Adult patients testing positive RT-PCR were sampled again within 48 h after administering oropharyngeal anaesthesia. Patients asked rate their discomfort visual analog scale (VAS) both A B. qualitative real-time detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA, was performed, cycle threshold value (Ct), used as surrogate marker viral load, measured without (sample A) post-lignocaine B). The difference Ct values groups checked any statistical significance using paired t-test. Wilcoxon signed rank VAS scores determine significant decrease discomfort. Forty included study. Twenty-nine (72.5%) reported procedure be more comfortable application. Median (IQR) decreased from 7 (1) 5 (2) use, which statistically (p < 0.05). Mean 17.21 ± 5.25 B 18.44 4.8 > 0.05), indicating non-significant concentration sample. Topical lignocaine, while improving patient did not alter load that detected nasal samples together.