Combination of paracetamol, codeine and lidocaine for pain relief during transrectal ultrasound guided biopsy of the prostate.

BACKGROUND AND AIM Transrectal ultrasound (TRUS) -guided prostate biopsy is often a painful procedure. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of combining oral paracetamol and codeine with periprostatic nerve block in relieving prostate biopsy-related pain. MATERIAL AND METHODS In this prospective study we compared the pain associated with prostate biopsy between two groups of patients. Group 1 consists of 25 men who were given paracetamol 500 mg and codeine 30 mg orally before the biopsy, and group 2 consists of 25 men who received no oral analgesics. All patients received periprostatic nerve block with 1% lidocaine before the biopsy. The pain associated with the biopsy procedure was evaluated on a visual analogue scale. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS The mean pain score +/- SD in group 1 was 1.4 +/- 0.80 on the scale of 0 to 10, and the mean pain score +/- SD in group 2 was 2.4 +/- 1.69. The difference in the pain scores between the two groups was statistically significant (p = 0.01). The combination of oral paracetamol, codeine and periprostatic nerve block before TRUS-guided prostate biopsy is an effective method for relieving biopsy-related pain.