The European Agency for the Evaluation of Medicinal Products Veterinary Medicines Evaluation Unit

1. Procaine (p-aminobenzoyl-diethylaminoethanol; synonym: novocaine), is a water-soluble local anaesthetic. Procaine is an amino ester. It is used in cattle, sheep, goats and horses for minor surgical procedures particularly dehorning by subcutaneous injection, and for local and regional anaesthesia by infiltration or nerve block. The common therapeutic doses ranged from 25 to 250 mg per animal. In humans, though procaine formerly was used widely, its use is now confined to infiltration anaesthesia and occasionally for diagnostic nerve block. When it is used as a local anaesthetic, dosages of up to 1000 mg procaine hydrochloride have been used, although doses of 600 mg are more common. In humans, the systemic analgesia can be observed after subcutaneous injection of 100 to 800 mg of procaine.