Comparison of the Effect of 5 and 10% Intranasal Lidocaine Spray on Improving Headache in Patients with Head Trauma Referring to the Emergency Department

Background & Objective: Headache is a common complaint among traumatic patients referring to the emergency department.To improve headache in these patients, an effective, fast-acting, accessible and inexpensive drug without a significant effect on the level of consciousness and vital signs is highly needed. Materials & Methods:In this double-blind randomized clinical trial (RCT) on patients with head trauma, Group A was given 5% intranasal lidocaine spray while group B was prescribed 10% intranasal lidocaine spray to improve headache.Headache severity was checked based on numeric pain scale (NPS) before drug administration and then at 5, 15, 30 minutes and plus 1 hour post-drug administration, along with patient satisfaction and possible side effects.Finally, the obtained data were analyzed using SPSS 23 software.Results: According to the data, the maximum reduction in headache occurred 5 minutes after the drug administration.There was a significant difference between the two groups in terms of satisfaction (P value = 0.022), where group A had 100% high satisfaction while group B had 87.5% high satisfaction and 12.5% had moderate satisfaction.Of the 80 patients in the study, 3 patients had tearing complications after medication administration, which resolved after 5 minutes, and one case had nasal mucosal anesthesia, which improved after 15 minutes. Conclusion:According to the results of this study, the use of 5% intranasal lidocaine spray is as effective as 10% intranasal lidocaine spray in relieving headache in traumatic patients and was associated with greater satisfaction and fewer complications.