United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

Once again on the facebook groups i am apart of i had been talking alot about lidocaine patches this past year but haven't really shown how / where it should be applied to get the most effectiveness out of them (in my experience). Here is a copy of the post i submitted to the facebook groups.

so the nerves for our injury come out of the neck as I'm sure everyone knows but the pain we feel is in our arm. as a result there is a temptation to apply the patches to the arm but this gives minimal effectiveness as the medication only effects the small area the patch is applied to.

to get the MOST effectiveness out of the patch i discovered that if you apply it to the general area that the associated nerves come out of the spine you can actually make it so your ENTIRE arm receives relief from the a SINGLE patch. Below is the general are that i apply my patches.

I am a right traumatic bpi so my patch leans to the right of my spine. if you are a left traumatic bpi you should have the patch lean to the left of your spine.

the wonderful thing about these patches is that they are not dependency causing and you get relief from them as soon as you apply them versus waiting an hour for the ingested pills to go through your liver/kidneys.

ask your drs for them and feel the relief (even from phantom limb pain). Mind you they will make your arm feel numb and that is what they are intended to do

So you have had good results from the patch? I have been meeting with a pain management physician and he has been pushing for lidocaine injections. The thought of putting a needle into an area that the Mayo performed many nerve graphs does not appeal to me. His other solution is installing some sort of electrical stimulating device along my spine also seems invasive. If the patches work I would be game for that. Was it your general doctor who prescribed them or a pain management doc? Looking for solutions like the rest of the members here.

Glad to have stumbled across this! My husband was involved in a similar motorcycle accident on 7/7/2015. He had triple nerve transfer surgery on 31 August but the nerve pain is out of control now and we cannot find a good balance with the meds. I am trying to get a version of this patch sent to me from the U.S (I am in South Africa). Its the LIDODERM FLEX 4% PATCH - praying ot works! Thanks for sharing and best wishes to you in your recovery