In our country, mortality from cardiovascular diseases occupies one of the leading places among other causes. It affects the neglect of people to their health, poor nutrition, addiction to alcohol and smoking, a sedentary lifestyle. Currently, a large number of medicines are being produced that not only help to cope with heart diseases, but also prevent their appearance. One of these drugs is Novocainamide, instructions for use will be discussed later.
The composition of the drug
Manufacturers produce Novocainamide in two forms: tablets and injection.
The active component of each form is procainamide, which in tablets contains 250 mg each, and in a solution of 100 mg. As excipients, tablets contain: calcium stearate, starch and lactose.
If you take a solution of the drug, then the additional components are water for injection and sodium disulfide.
Pharmacodynamics Novokainamida
If we talk about the drug "Novocainamide", the instruction description contains the following: refers to antiarrhythmic drugs. Procainamide, which is part of the drug as the main active substance, has a good membrane-stabilizing effect.
The mechanism of its action is based on the inhibition of the incoming duct of sodium ions, as well as a decrease in the depolarization rate in the zero phase. Novocainamide inhibits conduction, reduces the excitability of the heart muscle in the ventricles and atria.
Procainamide is also able to exert a vasodilating and vagolytic effect, which leads to a decrease in blood pressure and the appearance of tachycardia.
When the use of the drug is indicated
Heart medications are serious medicines that should never be taken without a doctor’s prescription. Only a specialist, taking into account the diagnosis and characteristics of the patient’s body, can prescribe the right drug. Indications for use of Novokainamide are as follows:
- The patient is concerned about tachycardia.
- There is ventricular extrasystole.
- Atrial flutter.
- Ventricular arrhythmia.
- Atrial premature beats.
- WPW Syndrome.
- Atrial fibrillation.
- Heart rhythm disturbance.
All these diagnoses are established only after a thorough examination of the patient.
Contraindications
Instructions for use "Novokainamida" also contains information on contraindications to the use of this drug. Taking the medicine is not indicated for:
- Arrhythmias, which are caused by an overdose of cardiac glycosides.
- AV blockade of 2 and 3 degrees.
- If there is leukopenia.
- Hypersensitivity to the components of the drug.
- If there are abnormalities in the functioning of the liver or kidneys.
- In the presence of myasthenia gravis.
- Myocardial infarction is also a contraindication to the use of the drug.
- High blood pressure.
- Atherosclerosis.
- Bronchial asthma.
- Instructions for use "Novokainamida" warns of the cautious prescribing of the drug to the elderly.
- Cardiogenic shock.
- Systemic lupus erythematosus, including a history of the disease.
- During breastfeeding.
- It is undesirable to prescribe Novokainamid to children under 18 years of age, the instructions for use do not contain information about the effectiveness and safety of the drug at this age.
Treatment regimen and dosage
The drug can be taken orally in the form of tablets, injected intravenously or intramuscularly.
If it is prescribed in the form of a Novokainamid solution, the instructions for use in ampoules contain detailed information on the application.
For intravenous administration, 100-500 mg of procainamide is dissolved in saline and administered slowly, at a rate of not more than 50 mg per minute. During administration, blood pressure must be monitored.
There are situations when repeated administration of the same amount of the drug is required to achieve the desired effect. In order to prevent an arrhythmia attack, the infusion is carried out at a rate of 2-6 mg per minute.
After the attack is stopped, you can maintain the effect by intramuscular injection of the drug in an amount of 0.5-1 grams.
As a therapeutic agent, Novocainamide is administered intramuscularly at 50 mg per kg of patient weight per day, this dose must be divided into several injections.
The maximum adult dose for intravenous or intramuscular administration is 1 gram per injection or 3 grams per day.
For Novocainamide, the instructions for using the pill at the very beginning of therapy recommends taking one one hour before meals or 2 hours after eating. You do not need to chew the tablet, but drink plenty of water.
If there are no side effects, then you can proceed to receive the necessary therapeutic dose, it can be from one to three tablets. For maintenance therapy, the doctor prescribes one tablet every 6 hours.
Undesirable manifestations
If the drug "Novocainamide" is prescribed, the instructions for use should be well studied. In it you can find information about the occurrence of side effects during treatment with this drug. These include:
- Ataxia.
- Psychotic reactions.
- The appearance of seizures.
- Dizziness.
- In serious cases, it comes to hallucinations.
- Myasthenia gravis
- Frequent headaches appear.
- The patient begins to suffer from depression.
- There are cases of manifestations of inhibition of bone marrow hematopoiesis.
- The taste is broken.
- Anemia is diagnosed.
- Ventricular tachycardia appears.
- Blood pressure decreases.
- Cardiac conduction is disturbed.
If Novokainamid therapy is prescribed for a long period, then lupus erythematosus may develop. Some patients also note that during treatment with the drug they can attack microbial infections and longer healing of wounds is observed.
Symptoms of a drug overdose
The drug Novocainamide was considered in the article, the instructions, description, and the photo below demonstrate what the symptoms of an overdose of the drug may be during treatment.
It can be characterized by the following manifestations:
- Severe dizziness.
- Drowsiness appears.
- There may be a swoon.
- Confusion.
- Vomiting
- Palpitations.
- Paroxysmal tachycardia is observed.
- The patient loses his appetite.
- Diarrhea begins.
- Blood pressure drops.
- Collapse.
For first aid, it is necessary to introduce the patient “Phenylephrine” and “Norepinephrine” if blood pressure has dropped. Effective help is gastric lavage, hemodialysis.
Drug interaction with other drugs
Instructions for use "Novocainamide" contains information on the interaction of the drug with other drugs. You need to know before you start drug therapy that:
- The medicine enhances the effect of taking muscle relaxants, anticholinergics.
- The effect of antihypertensive drugs is increasing.
- If antihistamines are taken at the same time, then the atropine-like effect is enhanced.
- If Pimozoda is taken at the same time, then on the ECG you can see the lengthening of the QT interval.
- The drug enhances the manifestation of side effects when taking "Bretilia Tosylate."
- The likelihood of developing an arrhythmogenic effect increases if antiarrhythmic drugs are prescribed at the same time.
- Taking a joint "Cimetidine" increases the elimination half-life of "Novokainamide" and reduces renal clearance.
Before prescribing the drug, the doctor must definitely ask what kind of medicine the patient is taking to take into account all possible interactions.
Important instructions for taking Novokainamid
It has already been said that taking the drug tablets is necessary on an empty stomach or a couple of hours after eating. You can drink it with milk or water. If injections are prescribed, then the solution must be diluted before administration.
During the treatment with Novocainamide, it is necessary to constantly monitor blood pressure, the level of leukocytes in the blood and do an ECG.
After treatment, an elevated level of antinuclear antibody titer is recorded in many patients. If you use the drug for a long time after surgery on the heart, then leukopenia may develop.
Elderly patients have a risk of developing hypotension, therefore it is necessary to constantly keep pressure under control. Particular care should be taken when prescribing this drug to children. The dosage should be carefully calculated.
Reception "Novokainamida" affects the concentration of attention, so you should refrain from driving a car during therapy with this drug. Also be careful to engage in activities that require increased attention and concentration, so as not to get injured.
Taking the drug during pregnancy
Instructions for use "Novokainamida" warns that the use of the drug during pregnancy can lead to a decrease in blood pressure, which, in turn, often results in utero-placental insufficiency.
Analogs and synonyms of the drug
Analogues of any drug are drugs that have the same effect on the body. If we consider the drug "Novocainamide" (description, analog, photo), then it has several such drugs:
- Aimalin in the form of a concentrate for solution preparation.
- Aimalin in the form of tablets.
- "Quinidine sulfate."
- Hinipek tablets.
Despite the fact that all analogues have a similar effect, still you should not prescribe a medicine for yourself. The doctor, taking into account the characteristics of the course of the disease, as well as the patient’s body, prescribes the drug that will be more effective.
In addition to analogues, there are also synonyms for Novokainamid, these are drugs with the same active substance. These include:
- Novocainamide-Ferein is a solution for intravenous and intramuscular injections.
- Procainamide Eskom is also an injection solution.
For any disease, you can always pick up analogues and synonyms of the drug that the doctor prescribed. Many patients are guided by the price and try to purchase cheaper analogues, but it must be remembered that the active substance can be the same, but combined with other components can give a completely different effect. Follow the advice of specialists, and do not self-medicate, so as not to harm your health even more.