Emla Cream

[wendyc]

We are going for a big blood draw tommorow to follow up on the possibility of Celiac. I know Emla takes 55 min. to take, but does anyone know if it has a maximum time limit for being on?
I have to drop my daughter off at the school bus @745, then drive down to Boston, which can take anywhere from an hour to two:mad: That darn Big Dig:mad: So, I was hoping I could slap it on around 730, our blood draw won't be until about 1030.

Any thoughts?

[pookas]

We use it for bloodwork also, but I threw out the paper that came w/ it. I looked it up and here's what I found, you should be ok to do it.

The cream is a eutectic mixture of lidocaine and prilocaine. It is used as a topical anesthetic on intact skin for local analgesia. It is useful in dermal procedures such as intravenous cannulation, venipuncture, and split-thickness skin graft harvesting. A thick layer of cream is applied to intact skin and covered with occlusive dressing and left in place for 1-2 hours. Alternatively, an EMLA anesthetic disc is applied and left in place for 1-2 hours. Dermal analgesia can be expected to increase for up to 3 hours under occlusive dressing and to persist for 1-2 hours after removal of the cream. See the individual agents for further information.


HTH

[selketine]

From what I can gather reading this document it would be safe: http://www.astrazeneca-us.com/pi/EMLA.pdf#search=%22emla%20cream%20maximum%20time%2 2

See page 17 of the PDF. Seems like the max application time is 4 hours. Probably you could take it off after 3 and her arms would stay numb for quite awhile afterwards.

Good luck with everything:cwds:

[dmconrad]

Wendy,
The insert in our Emla says to leave it on for up to 2 hours (because you have to leave it on longer for more invasive procedures) and then it can work for at least an hour after that, so that should get you to 10:30 and she should still have enough numbness for the blood draw.

We will be thinking about you tomorrow. Safe travels!

[BrendaK]

The longer it's on, the better it works -- that's been our experience. I'll often put it on and forget about it until it's been 2 hours. I think the longest it's been on has been 3 hours. I asked the dr. about and they said that's fine, but make sure to clean it off thoroughly. Good luck tomorrow.

[Tamara Gamble]

Anybody ever try to navigate in Boston. Will the Big Dig ever end. Last time I was there I had to cut off a public bus to get in. They started to call me the Taminator. Usually someone else drives now it's my job forever more. Needless to say we didn't hit Boston our last trip out your way. Good news the cream works for up to four hours, you may need it.

Seriously, good luck with that test tomorrow. We as always will be pulling for ya!

God Bless! Tami

[hold48398]

Our D team also said 4 hour is absolute max but we never left it on longer than 2. GL..we are due for bloodwork ourselves!!

[bethdou]

Anybody ever try to navigate in Boston. Will the Big Dig ever end. Last time I was there I had to cut off a public bus to get in. They started to call me the Taminator. Usually someone else drives now it's my job forever more. Needless to say we didn't hit Boston our last trip out your way.

I think if I ever get to Boston, I will be afraid of the Big Dig after the last thing I read, about how pieces of the tunnel fell off and squished some poor lady to death in her car. :eek:

Traffic is scary enough, without the whole thing falling in on you! My hubby is an engineer, and I've read several articles in Civil Engineering Magazine about the Big Dig....it's really interesting, but it sure seems to have a lot of problems!

Best wishes for the drive - and the blood work!