The FDA issued an alert to all mammogram patients and healthcare workers.
New York, NY–The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) www.fda.gov issued an alert to all health care workers and patients using topical pain alleviators before receiving mammograms or other routine and diagnostic medical procedures. The FDA has become aware women apply topical anesthetics to the skin and wrap plastic wrap over the pain cream on the skin before having mammograms and other procedures to increase the numbing properties of the drug.
There have been two reports of deaths after women have used these topical pain medications along with the plastic wrapping before having laser hair removal. The two female patients experienced seizures entered into comas and died. Medical professionals and FDA investigators discovered applying large amounts of the topical anesthetics to skin and wrapping the area in plastic wrap in hopes of increasing the pain medications numbing properties actually causes overdose and toxicity of the numbing drug.
Patients desiring to use topical anesthetics, like EMLA cream and other over the counter pain creams, should talk to their doctors about whether it is advisable. If the doctor recommends using a topical pain medication, patients should use a product containing the lowest concentration of the drug, and apply it sparingly. To decrease the chance of drug toxicity by rapid absorption into the body, do not apply it to broken or irritated skin, do not wrap the skin, and do not apply heat to the area.
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