Precautions for Marcaine
The safety and effectiveness of local anesthetics depend upon proper dosage, correct technique, adequate precautions, and readiness for emergencies.
The lowest dosage that gives effective anesthesia should be used in order to avoid high plasma levels and serious systemic side effects. Injection of repeated doses of bupivacaine may cause significant increase in blood levels with each additional dose, due to accumulation of the drug or its metabolites or due to slow metabolic degradation. Tolerance varies with the status of the patient.
Debilitated, elderly patients and acutely ill patients should be given reduced doses commensurate with age and physical condition.
Because of the long duration of anesthesia, when bupivacaine with epinephrine is used for dental injections, patients should be cautioned about the possibility of inadvertent trauma to tongue, lips, and buccal mucosa and advised not to chew solid foods or test the anesthetized area by biting or probing.
Changes in sensorium, such as excitation, disorientation, drowsiness, may be early indications of a high blood level of the drug and may occur following inadvertent intravascular administration or rapid absorption of bupivacaine.
Solutions containing a vasoconstrictor should be used cautiously in areas with limited blood supply, in the presence of diseases that may adversely affect the patient's cardiovascular system, or in patients with peripheral vascular disease.
Caution is advised in administration of repeat doses of bupivacaine to patients with severe liver disease.
Local anesthetic procedures should be used with caution when there is inflammation and/or sepsis in the region of the proposed injection.
Clinically Significant Drug Interactions
The administration of local anesthetic solutions containing epinephrine or norepinephrine to patients receiving mono-amine oxidase inhibitors or tricyclic antidepressants may produce severe, prolonged hypertension. Concurrent use of these agents should generally be avoided. In situations when concurrent therapy is necessary, careful patient monitoring is essential.
Concurrent administration of vasopressor drugs and of ergot-type oxytocic drugs may cause severe, persistent hypertension or cerebrovascular accidents.
Phenothiazines and butyrophenones may reduce or reverse the pressor effect of epinephrine.
Patients who are administered local anesthetics are at increased risk of developing methemoglobinemia when concurrently exposed to the following drugs, which could include other local anesthetics:
EXAMPLES OF DRUGS ASSOCIATED WITH METHEMOGLOBINEMIA:
| Class |
Examples |
| Nitrates/Nitrites |
nitric oxide, nitroglycerin, nitroprusside, nitrous oxide |
| Local anesthetics |
articaine, benzocaine, bupivacaine, lidocaine, mepivacaine, prilocaine, procaine, ropivacaine, tetracaine |
| Antineoplastic Antineoplastic Agents |
cyclophosphamide, flutamide, hydroxyurea, ifosfamide, rasburicase |
| Antibiotics |
dapsone, nitrofurantoin, para-aminosalicylic acid, sulfonamides |
| Antimalarials |
chloroquine, primaquine |
| Anticonvulsants |
phenobarbital, phenytoin, sodium valproate |
| Other drugs |
acetaminophen, metoclopramide, quinine, sulfasalazine |
Carcinogenesis, Mutagenesis, Impairment Of Fertility
Long-term studies in animals to evaluate the carcinogenic potential of bupivacaine hydrochloride have not been conducted. The mutagenic potential and the effect on fertility of bupivacaine hydrochloride has not been determined.
Pregnancy Category C
There are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women. Bupivacaine should be used during pregnancy only if the potential benefit justifies the potential risk to the fetus. Bupivacaine hydrochloride produced development toxicity when administered subcutaneously to pregnant rats and rabbits at clinically relevant doses. This does not exclude the use of bupivacaine at term for obstetrical anesthesia or analgesia.
Bupivacaine hydrochloride was administered subcutaneously to rats at doses of 4.4, 13.3, and 40 mg/kg and to rabbits at doses of 1.3, 5.8, and 22.2 mg/kg during the period of organogenesis (implantation to closure of the hard palate). The high doses are approximately 4-times the daily maximum recommended human dose (MRHD) of 90 mg/day on a mg dose/m2 body surface area (BSA) basis. No embryo-fetal effects were observed in rats at the high dose which caused increased maternal lethality. An increase in embryo-fetal deaths was observed in rabbits at the high dose in the absence of maternal toxicity with the fetal No Observed Adverse Effect Level being a comparable dose to the MRHD on a BSA basis.
In a rat pre- and post-natal development study (dosing from implantation through weaning) conducted at subcutaneous doses of 4.4, 13.3 and 40 mg/kg mg/kg/day, decreased pup survival was observed at the high dose. The high dose is approximately 4-time the daily MRHD of 90 mg/day on a BSA basis.
Nursing Mothers
It is not known whether local anesthetic drugs are excreted in human milk. Because many drugs are excreted in human milk, caution should be exercised when local anesthetics are administered to a nursing woman.
Pediatric Use
Until further experience is gained in children younger than 12 years, administration of bupivacaine in this age group is not recommended.