Adjuvant intra-arterial lidocaine in aortofemoral arteriography: some further observations.

It has been shown that lidocaine administered as a bolus intra-arterially immediately prior to contrast media injections significantly decreased the pain experienced from aortofemoral arteriography. Some researchers have advocated mixing 2 mgm of lidocaine with each ml of contrast agent rather than giving it as a bolus prior to the contrast agent. In a randomized study of 30 patients, the authors demonstrated that both methods are equally effective in decreasing the pain from aortofemoral arterography and that mixing the lidocaine with the contrast agent is the easier method.