[Effectiveness of skin icing for reducing pain associated with luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonist injection].

We evaluated the effect of using the cooling method on pain at the site of luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone(LH-RH) agonist injection in 181 prostate cancer or premenopausal breast cancer patients by using a numerical rating scale(NRS)and a questionnaire survey with open-ended questions. According to the NRS, 38.1% of the patients experienced a reduction in pain, 37.5% experienced no change, and 24.4% experienced an increase in pain. Therefore, use of the cooling method did not have a statistically significant effect in terms of pain reduction(p=0.123). However, on analyzing pain reduction according to the answers in the questionnaire survey, 53.2% of the patients experienced a reduction in pain, 38.5% experienced no change, and 8.3% experienced an increase in pain. These findings were different from those obtained on using the NRS. In addition, irrespective of using the cooling method, needle thickness and patient obesity strongly influenced the pain experienced. The skin icing method was effective in reducing pain at the site of LH-RH agonist injection. This method is simple, inexpensive, and safe, and is hence recommended.