Introduction:

Fibromyalgia is defined as a pain syndrome characterized by generalized chronic pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, anxiety and depression and, at times, an insufficient and frustrating treatment response. It is a benign condition chronically suffered by many patients, which forces the medical community on an ongoing search for an optimal treatment. We evaluated the effect of intravenous lidocaine on the different characteristics of fibromyalgia.

Method:

This is a prospective, longitudinal study. We recorded data for 48 patients diagnosed with fibromyalgia syndrome according with the American College of Rheumatology criteria (ACR 1990). Patients with abnormal electrocardiogram or abnormal blood electrolytes were excluded. Included cases received an increasing dose of 2 mg/kg up until 5 mg/kg of an intravenous lidocaine perfusion during 10 days. All included cases filled the following questionnaires at day 0 (pre-treatment), day 10 (post-treatment) day 30 and day 90: Health Survey SF-12 (SF-12), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ), Brief Pain Inventory (BPI), Big Five Inventory (BFI), Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), Medical Outcomes Sleep Scale (MOS), Patient Improvement Expectations (EXPEC).

Results:

48 cases were recorded, 46 were female and 2 were male, the median age was 55 (36-70). We found improvement in pain, fatigue and psychological attitude at 10 days that disappears at 30 days.

Discussion:

The treatment with infusion of intravenous lidocaine at these doses on this set of patients did not modify the clinical characteristics of fibromyalgia as a sustained manner.

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