Interactions | Procaine

Interactions

Procaine can limit the effect of certain antibiotics (sulfonamides). On the other hand, certain drugs used to relax muscles (nondepolarizing relaxants) prolong the effect, and drugs that stimulate the autonomic nervous system (cholinesterase inhibitors such as physostigmine) increase the effect of procaine.

Therapy

The oldest application of procaine is local anesthesia. Today, procaine is still mainly used in dentistry. In alternative medicine, procaine is preferably used in neural therapy.

Here, besides the anaesthetic effect, other therapeutic effects are also used. On the cellular level, procaine has an anti-inflammatory effect, which leads to the fact that in neural therapy procaine is also used as a local injection for inflammations. Moreover, the injection of procaine has a vasodilating effect. This effect is exploited in the pain therapy with procaine. Further effects of procaine in alternative medicine are described, some of which are not conclusively proven.

Where can you buy procaine?

Procaine can be obtained in the pharmacy or mail-order pharmacy. Often doctors also have procaine solutions for injection in their practices and can treat patients on the spot if necessary without having to buy the required ampoules in the pharmacy beforehand.

Is procaine also available over the counter?

One to two percent procaine solution in ampoules for injection or ready-to-use syringes can be obtained without prescription in pharmacies or mail order pharmacies. Ear drops containing procaine are also available without prescription. All other dosage forms as well as higher dosed procaine solutions have to be prescribed by the doctor.

History of Procain

More than a hundred years ago, today’s procaine was discovered by the German chemist Alfred Einhorn and was given the name Novocaine. The similarity of the name to cocaine is not by chance. For twenty years Cocaine was the most important local anaesthetic and was replaced by Novocaine (the “new (=novo) Cocaine”) at the turn of the century.