Procaine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Procaine is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- Procaine Hydrochloride
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Yes
Every procaine product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Procaine Hydrochloride.
Combination products containing procaine
A combination is a different drug — different dosing, different warnings. It is listed here so you can find it, not so you can substitute it.
Procaine and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for procaine: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadThe term "Novocaine" (an old procaine brand name) is often equated to local anesthetic. The exact identity of any local anesthetic should be verified, especially since procaine is no longer marketed in in the US as a single ingredient product. No information is available on the use of procaine during breastfeeding. Based on the short half-life of procaine in the plasma and the low excretion of other local anesthetics into breastmilk, a single dose of procaine during breastfeeding is unlikely to adversely affect the breastfed infant. However, an alternate drug may be preferred, especially while nursing a newborn or preterm infant.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 15, 2024. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about procaine
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 152 reports naming procaine, and the FDA flagged 81% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- drug hypersensitivity18 reports
- dyspnoea7 reports
- nausea7 reports
- somnolence7 reports
- cough6 reports
- depressed level of consciousness6 reports
- fatigue6 reports
- headache6 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean procaine caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 26, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
Can you take procaine with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run procaine against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does procaine come in?
Across the brands we track, procaine is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic procaine?
Yes. Our catalog lists 1 generic procaine product alongside the brand versions. A generic has the same active ingredient and must meet the FDA's bioequivalence standard; it usually costs less. Ask your pharmacist which one your plan covers.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Procaine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/procaine
- MLA
- “Procaine: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/procaine.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for procaine on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.