Prophylactic lidocaine in suspected acute myocardial infarction

Abstract We gave 50 consecutive patients with suspected acute myocardial infarction prophylactically lidocaine 300 mg intramuscularly and 100 mg intravenously. Although therapeutic plasma levels were reached, 2 of 24 (8%) patients with acute myocardial infarction had ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation and 3 of 50 (6%) became hypotensive during the first hour of lidocaine.