Abstract:Objective: To investigate the drug distribution in the skin and dorsal root ganglion (DRG) after application of lidocaine cataplasms in rabbits. Methods: 8-week-old male rabbits,weighing 2.50-2.75 kg,were randomly divided into 4 groups (5 rabbits in each group): group I12, group I24,,group P12 and group P24. The rabbits were sacrificed 12 hours (group I12) or 24 hours (group I24) after 0.4% lidocaine hydrochloride intradermal injection,or immediately (group P12) or 12 hours (group P24) after the withdrawal of 12-hours’ topical lidocaine cataplasms 5% application,and the skin and C2-L5 DRG were collected on both drug application side and contralateral side. The concentration of lidocaine in the tissues was detected by High performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). Results: The lidocaine concentration in drug side DRG in group P24 and group I12 was significantly higher than those in control side, while lidocaine was significantly lower in the contralateral skin of each group than the drug side and was not detected . The lidocaine in the application side skin of group P12 and group I12 was respectively higher than that of P24 group and I24 group, but there was no difference between group P24 and group I12 .The lidocaine concentration of drug side DRG in group I12 was higher than that in group I24; on the contrary, the lidocaine concentration in group P24 was much higher than that in group P12, and there was no difference between group P24 and group I12. Conclusion: There is a higher drug concentration in DRG by retrograde transport mechanism after topical lidocaine cataplasms 5% application for 12 hours,which suggests that lidocaine cataplasms has a similar mechanism as intradermal injection resulting in pain relieve by acting on local skin and DRG.