Known brand names include Ventolin, ProAir, and Proventil.
A quick-relief (rescue) inhaler that opens the airways during asthma symptoms or before exercise. One dose lasts about 4 to 6 hours. It does not replace controller medicines such as inhaled steroids.
Albuterol acts mainly on beta-2 receptors, the main type found on the smooth muscle that wraps around the airways. Switching on these receptors raises a messenger inside the muscle cells called cyclic AMP, which lowers calcium levels in the cells and lets the muscle relax. The relaxation reaches every part of the airways, from the windpipe down to the smallest branches, whatever set off the tightening. Higher cyclic AMP is also linked to less release of chemical signals from mast cells in the airway.
In a study, people who responded began breathing better about 5 minutes after a dose on average, with the peak at about an hour and the effect usually lasting about 4 hours, sometimes up to 6. The heart also has some beta-2 receptors, so it can speed the pulse, change blood pressure, or alter the heart tracing in some people. It can briefly lower blood potassium and change blood sugar. Rarely, a puff tightens the airways instead of opening them, which can be life threatening and happens most often with the first use of a new canister.
Albuterol is a quick-relief inhaler for bronchospasm, a sudden tightening of the muscles around the airways that makes it hard to breathe. It treats and helps prevent this tightening in lung diseases where the airway narrowing can be reversed, such as asthma. It also helps prevent the tightening that exercise can set off. The aim is to ease wheezing, coughing, chest tightness, and shortness of breath.
It is used by adults and children 4 years and older, who breathe it in through the mouth from an inhaler. It controls symptoms but does not cure asthma, and needing it more often than usual can be a sign that asthma is getting worse. It does not replace corticosteroids or other anti-inflammatory medicines, which many people with asthma also need.
A fast or pounding heartbeat, shakiness, nervousness, throat irritation, cough, and muscle aches are the common side effects. The label treats sudden airway tightening right after a puff as dangerous, along with changes in heart rhythm and blood pressure, low potassium, and serious allergic reactions. It also warns that relying on too much of it during a severe asthma attack can be deadly.