Lumen SQL search query on Always Encrypted columns

Question

I have a PHP application powered by Lumen framework and trying to query a table that's encrypted using Always Encrypted feature from SQL server.

I am trying to retrieve data from a table with encrypted column using SELECT query with WHERE clause on the encrypted column.

From the documentation here, we should be able to do it like this

DECLARE @FirstName NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'Paul';
SELECT * FROM t_users_encrypted WHERE first_name = @FirstName;

where t_users_encrypted.first_name is an encrypted column with NVARCHAR(MAX) data type. I've tried running that query in SSMS and it works fine.

However I've had a problem when trying to run that query in Lumen, this is what I've tried

app('db')->select(
    "DECLARE @FirstName NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'Paul';
     SELECT * FROM t_users_encrypted WHERE first_name = @FirstName"
);

and it returns error

SQLSTATE[42000]: [Microsoft][ODBC Driver 17 for SQL Server][SQL Server]Encryption scheme mismatch for columns/variables '@FirstName'. The encryption scheme for the columns/variables is (encryption_type = 'PLAINTEXT') and the expression near line '2' expects it to be DETERMINISTIC, or PLAINTEXT. (SQL: DECLARE @FirstName NVARCHAR(MAX) = 'Paul';
SELECT * FROM t_users_encrypted WHERE first_name = @FirstName)

Is there anything wrong with the query or maybe I'm using wrong function? or is it not possible to use the built in Lumen library?

---

EDIT:

Turns out based on this,

Rely on the PHP driver to determine and set the right SQL type. In this case, the user must use sqlsrv_prepare and sqlsrv_execute to execute a parameterized query.

So basically we need to use a specific function from sqlsrv or pdo_sqlsrv driver, using those driver function directly I manage to make a raw query work, i.e. normal select query with prepared statement work fine without need to declare a variable as follows

$query = "SELECT * FROM t_users_encrypted WHERE first_name = ?";
$firstName = "Paul";
$params = [&$firstName];
$stmt = sqlsrv_prepare($conn, $query, $params);

So I guess my question is, is there any built in Lumen/Laravel function that could achieve this? or should I use the driver function directly and probably build the wrapper myself?