64 healthy volunteers were randomly divided into four groups. One hour before blood sampling, either cream A or B was applied on the right cubital area and the same amount of C or D cream on the left cubital area. Pain of blood sampling was assessed using Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). At the end of study, they found that products A (EMLA) and B (EMLA) caused a significant decrease in pain compared to products C (lidocaine) and D (benzocaine). They also that there was no differences between product C and D. No anesthetic side effect was observed during the study. They concluded that EMLA cream is superior to lidocaine 5% and benzocaine 5% in terms of analgesia and is also a safe anesthetic agent during blood …show more content…
The transepidermal route consists of the transcellular and the intercellular route. Transcellular route is the more direct route where the drug crosses the skin by directly passing through both the lipid structures of the stratum corneum and the cytoplasm of the dead keratinocytes. Even though this is the shortest route, however, drug substances encounter significant resistance to permeation because they have to cross both lipophilic and hydrophilic structures. The intercellular route is the more common route for drug permeation, where the permeant overcomes the stratum corneum by passing between the corneocytes.