There is no standard or official recipe for the tumescent anesthetic solutions. The actual concentrations of lidocaine and epinephrine should depend on the areas to be treated and clinical situation. In this article the word dosage implies the total amount of a drug given relative to the patient's weight in kilograms (mg/kg); a dose is a quantity of a medicine given at one time measured in milligrams (mg).

The following important concepts and warnings must be emphasized in order to minimize the risks of lidocaine toxicity. Safe dosages of tumescent (very dilute) lidocaine and epinephrine are not the same for “out-of-the-bottle” commercial (considerably more concentrated) lidocaine. Whereas the safe maximum dosage of tumescent lidocaine (with epinephrine) at concentrations of between 0.05% and 0.1% is between 45 mg/kg to 50 mg/kg, the traditional dosage limitation for commercial lidocaine (with epinephrine) at concentrations of 0.5%, 1%, or 2% remains valid at 7 mg/kg. All physicians should be extremely careful to recognize this vital distinction.