Best BETs from the Manchester Royal Infirmary. BET 2: should intranasal lidocaine be used in patients with acute cluster headache?

A short-cut review was carried out to determine whether intranasal lidocaine was an effective treatment for patients with acute cluster headaches. Two hundred and seventy-two papers were found using the reported search, of which four were considered relevant to the three-part question. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses are shown in table 2. Although the included studies all found some degree of symptomatic relief with this treatment, the methodological weaknesses of the studies compromised the validity of this finding, and the authors concluded that there was insufficient evidence to support this treatment in clinical practice.