Patients With Chronic Pain May Find Relief With Intravenous Lidocaine Infusion

TOPLINE

Patients with chronic pain who received an intravenous (IV) infusion of lidocaine reported relief from pain in the short-to-medium term, encountered only mild side effects, and reported high overall satisfaction with the treatment.

METHODOLOGY

• Researchers conducted a retrospective study at a hospital in England to assess the efficacy, duration of benefit, and safety of IV infusions of lidocaine in patients with chronic pain.
• They analyzed data from 136 adults treated between October 2024 and March 2025 for refractory chronic pain lasting more than 6 months, including fibromyalgia, chronic myofascial pain, and chronic neuropathic pain syndromes.
• All patients received a 1-hour IV infusion of lidocaine at 3 mg/kg (calculated using ideal body weight) under continuous monitoring in a day-case setting.
• At approximately 3 months, 112 patients (83% women) completed follow-up via telephone and reported measures including pain scores, duration of pain relief, adverse effects, and overall satisfaction. 
• Clinically meaningful improvement in pain was defined as either an absolute reduction of at least 2 points on a pain rating scale of 0-10 or a reduction of at least 30% in the score. A long-term benefit was defined as maintaining scores of 4.5 or less beyond 3 months. 

TAKEAWAY

• The mean pain score decreased from 8.0 at baseline to 4.5 at 2 months after the infusion of lidocaine, with an absolute reduction of 3.5 points, indicating a clinically meaningful improvement.
• At 2 months, 86% of patients had a pain score of 4.5 or less compared with baseline; 29% maintained these scores beyond 3 months.
• Adverse effects occurred in 17% of patients, and all were mild and self‑limiting. No serious events (such as arrhythmias or seizures) were observed.
• Overall, 85% of patients said they would recommend the infusion to others with chronic pain.

IN PRACTICE

Although IV lidocaine “may provide short- to medium-term analgesic benefit, definitive conclusions regarding sustained long-term efficacy cannot be drawn from this dataset alone,” the researchers reported.

SOURCE

The study was led by Abdelhady S.M. Ali, of University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, Leicester, England. It was published online on June 27 in Pain Research and Management.