Ichabod said...
Constrict would make more sense, but he did say dilate.
Somebody said...
He did mean constrict. When you have nasal congestion, the release of histamine(sp?) causes the nasal vessels to dilate fully, which makes them bigger, which fills up your nose and leaves little room for air to pass. Neosynephrine and Afrin nose sprays quickly constrict those vessels, shrinking them. A very tiny amount of neosynephrine injected into your blood stream will cause blood vessels to clamp down(constrict) and shoot your blood pressure from 100 systolic to 200 or more in a minute or so.
Of course when we have a problem woody that won't go down, that is- like nasal congestion- a case of dilated vessels that won't shrink down. So what we need is some constriction.
One minute you need some dilation, a few hours later you desperately need some constriction. One extreme to the other.
I can vouch for that. I resurrected many a severely low BP with a tiny dose of Neosynephrine a hundred+ times over the years. Anesthesia folks use this routinely. We often have it already drawn up, diluted and ready to go. It usually does not last very long(which might be good if it s only some temporary something dropping BP) an has a tendency to(temporarily) cause an amazingly decrease pulse/heart rate due to a reflex associated with the rapid increase in BP(Barro reflex), but it sure will get the BP out of the dirt quickly, by constricting arteries, from 30 to 200 depending.
I just caught a typo here:
www.medicinenet.com/phenylephrine-injection/article.htm where it says
Somebody said...
Phenylephrine increases blood pressure and heart rate without affecting heart rhythm.
Nope. Not in my 36 years experience. Much more likely it drops heart rate almost as much as it raises BP, though it is short lived. I have seen many a beginner scared ****less by how much it dropped the heart rate even as BP skyrocketed. A VERY powerful drug. I figure that is a typo as not far down below it says it is used to slow down excessively fast heart rates.
We normally used ephedrine for the pregnant ladies, it kept blood going to the baby better than Neo. And of course that is the pill we suddenly not limp guys pop as the 1st rescue step. Both of these drugs are ancient, but nothing more effective had been found, as of a couple of years ago when I retired.
I was also given an ampule of epinephrine(also as ancient as a drug gets). It will probably work even better than the neo, but probably with greater risk to the heart. So if I ever get a refill, I am going to ask for some Neo.
Post Edited (BillyBob@388) : 12/22/2015 8:20:17 PM (GMT-7)