In vitro and in vivo Evaluation of New Topical Anaesthetic Cream Formulated with Palm Oil Base

BACKGROUND: Topical local anaesthetic cream was reported to be useful for pain relief for cutaneous procedures such as minor surgery and venipuncture.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of new formulation of lidocaine topical anaesthetic using palm oil base, HAMIN® and to determine how fast this new formulation produces adequate numbness compared to the currently used EMLA cream, in the University of Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) set-up.

METHOD: The skin permeation test was conducted by using Franz type diffusion cell and pain assessment was carried out in healthy subject by using Verbal Rating Score (VRS) and Visual Analogue Score (VAS) evaluation.

RESULT: Result of permeation test demonstrated that the cumulative amount of lidocaine released from HAMIN® cream was increased with time and slightly higher than EMLA cream. The clinical study showed that HAMIN® single lidocaine cream can produces numbness through venepuncture procedure and comparable with EMLA cream which is a combination therapy for local anaesthetic (lidocaine and prilocaine).

CONCLUSION: It can be concluded that HAMIN® Lidocaine cream is suitable for cream preparation especially for topical application and it can be regarded as an achievement in palm oil and medical industries.