The safety and efficacy of Emla cream topical anesthesia for myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion.

Emla cream is a eutectic mixture of lignocaine and prilocaine which can be used to anesthetize the tympanic membrane for myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion. This paper describes the anesthetic method and considers the safety and efficacy of this technique in 37 tympanic membranes from 29 adult patients. All of the patients easily tolerated the procedure. Patients with experience of previous tympanic membrane anesthetic techniques stated a preference for the Emla cream technique. No patient complained postoperatively of vertigo or tinnitus. Pure tone audiometry was performed on all 29 patients in whom a ventilation tube was inserted, both before tube insertion and at review consultation (between one month and 12 months after tube insertion. There was no audiometric evidence of ototoxicity.