Lidoderm patch uses for muscle pain

Lidocaine patches, in brands such as Lidoderm, LenzaPatch and Terocin, are used to relieve muscle and joint pain caused by arthritis, back pain, and problems caused by tendon or nerve damage, says Drugs.

Endo Pharmaceuticals, the manufacturer of Lidoderm, also indicates it for nerve damage caused specifically by shingles. So, using it for managing nerve-based or neuropathic pain in the back is regarded as an off-label use at present. Off-label refers to a type of medicine or tool used without the suggestion of the FDA.

Thus, you may wonder whether to use these patches for treating back pain. However, this is not a big concern as it may sound. There are many other off-label medicines in use. For example, aspirin is an off-label drug that is still considered safe and is often recommended by physicians. Formerly used to treat pain, aspirin can even prevent cardiovascular issues according to the studies until now.

Although not suggested for neuropathic spine pain, a patch of lidocaine for sciatica can reduce low back pain as well as pain triggered due to osteoarthritis according to the existing evidence.

However, a physician may suggest it for managing other spinal issues as well. A doctor is likely to prescribe lidocaine patches along with other medicines such as anticonvulsants to those who are experiencing nerve-based chronic pain in their back.

This is done with the hope that this mix of medicines will aid in managing neuropathic pain and enhance your daily function. However, you need to discuss every medicine including the OTC ones with your doctor so that the risk of adverse interactions is minimized. You should always take a lidocaine patch on healthy skin, which means that the targeted area of the skin should not have any cuts or blisters.

If that part of the skin is cracked, applying a patch on it can have an adverse effect or no positive effect at all. Such treatment should be focused on the specific sensory syndrome present in the patient, thereby specifically targeting cutaneous disturbances that are present.

However, the success of such specific treatment probably largely depends on the proper identification of the most suitable patients. The purpose of this manuscript is therefore to provide clinicians with the proper tools for identifying such patients, by detailing the appropriate sensory syndromes, and identifying suitable places for the application of the patches and other patient characteristics.

A year-old woman developed a herpes zoster skin rash after the death of her husband. Although she was quickly diagnosed and treated with oral anti-viral medications acyclovir , she soon developed stabbing and burning pain in the entire area of the skin rash dermatomes D7 till D9. Analgesic treatment consisting of paracetamol, immediate-release tramadol and long-acting tilidine was initiated but quickly stopped due to pronounced nausea and vomiting.

Treatment with pregabaline mg per day induced dizziness, which was considered as extremely uncomfortable by the patient. The patient placed 2 patches every day in order to cover the entire painful area. A year-old man developed an extremely painful syndrome shortly after a surgical procedure to the right foot microsurgical resection of an interdigital neuroma. Despite multiple pharmacological therapies, consisting of tramadol, low-dose transdermal fentanyl, amitriptyline, gabapentine and venlafaxine, he continued to display severe spontaneous burning pain in addition to a pronounced mechanical hyperalgesia and allodynia among other symptoms.

Daily application of half a lidocaine patch onto the painful skin area quickly reduced the evoked painful symptoms. A short while later the spontaneous pain symptoms also started to decrease. The patient reported neither local nor systemic side effects, and all other analgesics were stopped. After 12 weeks of treatment he resumed work.

Treatment of NeP has gone through some significant changes in the last decade. Initially, painful neuropathies were treated as any other pain syndromes, merely through analgesics. This change in pharmaceutical approach to NeP has been accompanied by a growing tendency towards a more mechanism-based treatment.

Instead of merely treating the painful symptomatology of etiologies, such as diabetes and herpes zoster infections, physicians have been slowly incorporating underlying pathophysiological mechanisms into the choice of treatment options. As a result, application of combination and multimodal therapies in the management of NeP syndromes has increased.

The introduction of lidocaine-medicated patches should mean an additional and significant step into the transgression from the classical etiology-based approach to NeP to a much more scientifically valid pathophysiology based approach to the treatment of painful neuropathies.

Excited nociceptors are indeed considered a crucial part of the pathophysiology of NeP syndromes. For this purpose, a clear-cut and scientifically valid stepwise approach for identifying appropriate patients is hereby proposed see also flow-chart diagram, Figure 1. Flow chart for identifying appropriate patients for treatment with lidocaine medicated patches. Patients should present with a probable diagnosis of NeP, considering the recently revised definition and grading system.

Patients should present with a clinical history indicative of a NeP syndrome. Neurological examination and ancillary testing should further confirm the existence of a painful neuropathy. The second, equally important clinical condition is the identification of presence of positive cutaneous sensory disturbances. Recent studies have shown the presence of distinct symptom profiles in patients suffering from NeP.

Presence of spontaneous uncomfortable sensory symptoms paresthesias should be considered as an additional, but less crucial, clinical feature. Allodynic complaints should therefore be the most prominent clinical symptom of the NeP syndrome in the patient. Additional sensory aberrations can be hyperpathia and temporal or spatial summation. The diagnostic approach to cutaneous NeP syndromes should therefore include the proper identification of positive sensory disturbances through the use of validated semi- quantitative sensory testing methods such as QST.

In a next step, the physician should clearly identify and demarcate the concerned skin area. The physician should ensure that its total area is not too out of proportion in comparison to the size of the lidocaine patches, so that no more than 3 plasters need to be used on a daily basis. I always try to emphasize the importance of heat, ice, elevation, stretching, and alternative methods other than pills that may help patients with pain relief.

But one of my go-to treatments lately has been the use of the lidocaine patch. While this is still pharmacologic, the lidocaine patch offers a different method of pain relief for patients. I have given patients all sorts of medications for issues such as back pain, including narcotics, muscle relaxers, anti-inflammatories, and steroids, and often times patients report that they get the most pain relief with the lidocaine patch.

They experience such relief that they make sure to request a prescription for it. These are a great alternative for patients who would prefer the patch but cannot afford the prescription price.