Objective: Intravenous infusion of lignocaine is often used in neurological practice to treat prolonged, resistant headache despite the lack of evidence of benefit from randomised controlled trials. Nevertheless, some concern remains regarding its safety. We therefore performed a retrospective chart review of our centre’s experience over a 2 year period.
Methods: Single-centre retrospective chart review of patients treated with lignocaine infusions at The Canberra Hospital from 1/7/05 to 30/06/07, inclusively. Data collected included type of headache, efficacy of treatment, and any adverse events.
Results: Twenty-one infusions were given to 15 patients over the two year period. Seventeen of the infusions were for a diagnosis of migraine or status migrainosus. Complete pain relief occurred in 48%, partial relief in 38%, but 14% reported no improvement. Two infusions were terminated due to minor side effects. No major adverse events were recorded.
Conclusion: Our data suggest that lignocaine infusions may well be an effective treatment for prolonged resistant headache. We found that it was well tolerated and had minimal side effects. However, a prospective randomised controlled trial is required to demonstrate its effectiveness.