ATC Group: D04AB Anesthetics for topical use

The World Health Organization's ATC classification organizes medical drugs based on therapeutic properties, chemical composition, and anatomy. It helps make essential medicines readily available globally and is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry.

Position of D04AB in the ATC hierarchy

Level Code Title
1 D Dermatologicals
2 D04 Antipruritics, incl. antihistamines, anesthetics, etc.
3 D04A Antipruritics, incl. antihistamines, anesthetics, etc.
4 D04AB Anesthetics for topical use

Group D04AB contents

Code Title
D04AB01 Lidocaine
D04AB02 Cinchocaine
D04AB03 Oxybuprocaine
D04AB04 Benzocaine
D04AB05 Quinisocaine
D04AB06 Tetracaine
D04AB07 Pramocaine

Active ingredients in D04AB

Active Ingredient

Benzocaine is a local anaesthetic of the ester type, acting to produce reversible loss of sensation by preventing or diminishing the generation and transmission of sensory nerve impulses near the site of application. Depolarisation of the neuronal membrane and ion exchange are reversibly inhibited.

Cinchocaine is a local anaesthetic agent and is suitable for surface or spinal anaesthesia and for relaxing sphincteric spasms. It is an anaesthetic of the amide type. It is more toxic than cocaine by local application but its local anaesthetic action is greater so it can be used in lower concentrations. Its action is more prolonged than lignocaine.

Lidocaine, like other local anaesthetics, causes a reversible blockade of impulse propagation along nerve fibres by preventing the inward movement of sodium ions through the nerve membrane. Local anaesthetics of the amide-type are thought to act within the sodium channels of the nerve membrane.

Tetracaine is a local anaesthetic and is believed to act by blocking nerve conduction mainly by inhibiting sodium ion flux across the axon membrane.

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