Lidocaine Hydrochloride is a type of medicine called a local anaesthetic. This is used in numbing a localized area to prevent pain by local infiltration and minor/major nerve blocks. It is called local anesthesia. Lidocaine Hydrochloride may also be used to control abnormal contractions of the two lower chambers of the heart, particularly after a heart attack.

Local infiltration is useful in many procedures ranging from the excision of skin lesions to post-operative analgesia in major surgery, to improve pre-operative or post-operative analgesia. Often local infiltration is used with adrenaline to increase the amount of local anaesthetic that can be used. Also, it aids to reduce bleeding from the operation site.

Nerve blocks or a neural blockade helps prevent many different types of pain. They are often injections of medicines that block pain from specific nerves. They can be used for pain relief as well as total loss of feeling if needed for surgery. Perhaps the best-known nerve block is an epidural. Many pregnant women ask for an epidural during childbirth to ease the pain of labor and delivery. In an epidural, doctors inject an anesthetic drug into the space just outside the spinal column. Nerve blocks require needles. The health care provider may also use low level electrical stimulation to locate the nerve causing pain. The needles and guided images are used to inject pain-relieving or anti-inflammatory drugs around a nerve or group of nerves. This numbs the area and relieves inflammation. Sometimes chemicals or surgery is used to actually intentionally damage or cut the nerve. Nerve blocks stop the pain messages coming from the nerves in a particular part of the body. Nerve blocks can be temporary or longer-lasting. Health care providers may give them with local anesthesia after numbing where the needle enters the skin. They can also block pain signals to an area by deliberately cutting or destroying certain nerves during surgery.

Heart attack happens if the flow of blood to the heart is blocked. The blockage is most often a build-up of cholesterol, fat, or other substances. Wherein, these substances form a plaque in the arteries that feed the heart. The plaque eventually breaks away and forms a clot. The interrupted blood flow can damage or destroy part of the heart muscle. Common heart attack signs and symptoms include:

• Pain, tightness, pressure, or a squeezing or aching sensation in your chest or arms that may spread to your back, jaw, or neck
• Nausea
• Indigestion
• Heartburn
• Abdominal pain
• Shortness of breath
• Fatigue
• Cold sweat
• Light-headedness or sudden dizziness

How does Lidocaine Hydrochloride work?

Pain is caused by the stimulation of pain receptors at the ends of nerves. The stimulation causes sodium to enter the nerve ending, which causes an electrical signal to build up in the nerve. When this electrical signal is big enough, it passes along the nerve to the brain, where the signal is interpreted as pain. Lidocaine Hydrochloride works by temporarily blocking this pathway of pain signals along nerves. It does this by stopping the sodium entering the nerve ending at the site of the pain. This prevents an electrical signal building up and passing along the nerve fibres to the brain.

The pumping action of the heart is controlled by electrical impulses that are under the control of the nervous system. If the pumping action of the heart is seriously disturbed, this affects the ability of the heart to pump blood effectively around the body. Lidocaine Hydrochloride acts by decreasing the sensitivity of heart muscle to electrical impulses. This slows the conduction of electrical signals in the heart muscle, which in turn, helps to restore a regular heart rhythm. This enables the heart to pump blood effectively around the body.

How to use?

This medication is used as directed by your doctor. The dosage is based on your condition, age, weight, and response to the treatment. Do not increase your dose or use this more often or for longer than prescribed. It will increase your risk of side effects. This medicine starts to numb the affected area within 5 minutes after use. If you are using this product before certain procedures, tell your doctor if the area does not feel numb or the numbness does not go away. If you are using this product to relieve pain/discomfort, tell your doctor if your condition lasts or gets worse.

Side Effects

Common side effects:

• Dizziness
• Nausea
• Numbness in places where the medicine is accidentally applied
• Application site reactions such as redness, irritation, stinging, swelling, and burning)
• Drowsiness
• Light-headedness
• Numbness of the tongue

Call for medical assistance of these side effects occurs:

• Slow or irregular heartbeat or breathing
• Seizure
• Vision changes
• Fainting
• Mental/mood changes

Stop using the drug if you have the following:

• Feeling nervous or restless
• Vomiting
• Blurred vision
• Numbness or cold feeling
• Feeling like you might pass out

Precautions

• Lidocaine Hydrochloride is to be used carefully in children, elderly people, people with epilepsy, slow heart rate, or with congestive heart failure.
• Inform your doctor if you have any allergies or ever had an allergic reaction to this drug.
• This is not recommended for use in people who have severe problems with the electrical signals within the heart and with a defect of the heart’s electrical message pathways resulting in decreased function of the heart.
• This medicine may pass into breast milk but only in small amounts that are extremely unlikely to be harmful to a nursing infant. Ask your doctor for more medical advice.
• It is important to tell your doctor or the anaesthetist administering this medicine what medicines you are already taking including those bought without a prescription and herbal medicines, before you are given this anaesthetic. It is to make sure that the combination is safe. 
• Certain medicines should not be used during breastfeeding or pregnancy. However, other medicines may be safely used in breastfeeding or pregnancy providing the benefits to the mother outweighs the risks to the unborn baby. Always inform your doctor if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, before using any medicine.