Clinical assessment of a new local anesthetic agent-carticaine.

The combination of 4 per cent carticaine 5 mug per milliliter with epinephrine is an effective agent acting in the standard lidocaine-epinephrine-mepivacaine-epinephrine range. Like lidocaine, it is of no clinical value without the addition of epinephrine and its vasodilator properties are greater than those of mepivacaine or prilocaine. Its onset time is reasonably rapid, its duration and extent are satisfactory for clinical purposes, and no toxic reactions were noted in the 100 injections given. However, its predictability for +4 anesthesia is poor, and there is wide variation in the onset time. Finally, the success rate compared with that for lidocaine, mepivacaine, or prilocaine for the same dosage and areas, with the use of the same criteria, is not good enough in my opinion to qualify carticaine as a general-purpose anesthetic on a par with standard lidocaine.