Furosemide
Known brand names include Lasix and Furoscix.
A strong "water pill" that makes the kidneys pass more salt and water. It treats swelling from heart, liver, or kidney disease, fluid in the lungs, and high blood pressure.
Known brand names include Lasix and Furoscix.
A strong "water pill" that makes the kidneys pass more salt and water. It treats swelling from heart, liver, or kidney disease, fluid in the lungs, and high blood pressure.
Furosemide works in the kidneys, blocking them from taking sodium and chloride, the parts of salt, back into the body. It acts along several parts of the kidney's tubes, including a section called the loop of Henle. Water follows the salt out, so the body makes much more urine. Acting in the loop of Henle is the main reason it removes fluid so strongly.
Taken by mouth, it starts working within 1 hour and lasts 6 to 8 hours, and by IV it starts within 5 minutes and lasts about 2 hours. The person passes much more urine, and swelling from built-up fluid goes down. Too much fluid loss can cause dehydration, low potassium, sodium, and other minerals in the blood, and worsening kidney function. It can also cause ringing in the ears or hearing loss, mostly with fast injection, high doses, or badly weakened kidneys.
Furosemide is a strong water pill that treats edema, a buildup of extra fluid in the body's tissues. The fluid can come from heart failure, scarring of the liver, or kidney disease. Given by IV, it also helps clear fluid from the lungs in an emergency, as one part of the treatment. As a pill, it also lowers high blood pressure.
Adults and children use it for edema, but only adults take it for high blood pressure, alone or with other blood pressure medicines. The tablets are swallowed, and the injection goes into a vein or a muscle. For people with liver scarring and fluid in the belly, treatment is best started in the hospital. If a thiazide water pill has not controlled someone's blood pressure, it alone probably will not either.
Because it flushes out water and salts, people can become dehydrated and dizzy when they stand up, and potassium, sodium, and magnesium can run low. It can also raise blood sugar and uric acid and make skin burn more easily in the sun. The label treats ringing in the ears or hearing loss as dangerous, along with collapse from losing too much fluid, confusion in people with liver disease, trouble passing urine, and rare severe skin or blood reactions.