Materials and Methods: Thirthy eyes of 15 Diabetus mellitus patients with diffüz macular edema were involved in the study. We have administered intravitreal triamcinalone to one eye of each patient under subconjunctival injetion anesthesia and to the fellow eye under topical lidocaine gel anesthesia. The pain assesments of both of the anesthesia techniques were recorded just after the anesthesia and after the intravitreal injection by using visual analoque scale.

Results: Eight of the invoved patients were men and 7 of them were women. The mean pain score was 4.53±1.13 during subconjuctival anesthesia while it was found to be 0 after lidocaine gel application. The mean pain scores during anesthesia was significantly lower with lidocaine gel application compared with subconjuctival injection (p=0.000). The mean pain score computed after intravitreal injection with subconjuctival injection technique was 2.87±1.06 and 4.0±1.0 with lidocaine gel application. The statistical analysis revealed a significantly high level of received pain after intravitreal injection under lidocaine gel anesthesia compared with subconjuctival injection (p=0.009). We observed chemosis and subconjuctival haemorhage in 8 (53,3%) of 15 eyes treated with subconjuctival anesthesia and in only 2 (13,3%) eyes treated with lidocaine gel application.

Conclussion: Although subconjuctival anesthesia is a more discomforting way of anesthesia compared with lidocaine gel application, pain control during intravitreal injection is better than lidocaine gel technique. However, Lidocaine gell should be kept in mind as an alternative method of anesthesia especially for the patients who has fear of needle. Keywords : Lidocaine gel, intravitreal enjection, macular edema