Objective

To evaluate impact of patient therapeutic education on compliance and efficacy on allodynic symptoms of 5% lidocaine medicated plaster (CL5) in patients suffering from postoperative localized neuropathic pains (DNL) and in therapeutic failure.

Material/patients and methods

Retrospective study on 69 patients. All patients benefited from a standardized therapeutic education and from efficacy and safety data collection. Pains induced by friction, pressure, warmth and cold were collected after 3 and 6 months.

Results

Therapeutic patient education had a positive impact on observance, 100% and 94,5% of patients being present after 3 and 6 months. CL5 confirmed its efficacy and good safety profile. It induced an important pain relief, which improved during the 6 months of follow-up. CL5 induced a decrease of all allodynic symptoms with a complete and fast disappearance of mechanical allodynia induced by friction and pressure. Thermic allodynia induced by the warmth improved during the first 3 months and that induced by the cold improved during 6 months. These kinetics of efficacy could be related to different pharmacological properties of lidocaine on A β , A δ and C fibers involved in transmission of pain messages.

Discussion – conclusion

This retrospective study showed the interest of ETP and confirmed the CL5 efficacy in the management of DNL.