Pharmacology on intensive care Flashcards
What is a half-life of a drug?
What is a steady state?
Time taken for drug to reduce by half in the body.
Steady state is 5 half lives
What is inotrope and what are the 2 kinds?
An agent that alters the force or energy of muscular contractions
- Positive agent = increases strength of muscular contraction
- Negative agent = weakens the force of muscular contraction
What do vasopressor drugs do?
A powerful class of drugs that induce vasoconstriction and therby elevate mean arterial pressure (MAP)
What are the different types of sedation that can be used and give an example for short-term
Short-term sedation: used in procedures like endoscopy, causes short term memory loss. Usually use midazolam
Medium-term sedation: Used on pts having a day care aneasthetic procedure
Long-term sedation: used on pts in critical care
Give some examples of drugs used for sedation in critical care and what they do
- Propofol: completely depresses the CNS, one off dse last 3 minutes
- Remifentanyl and fentanyl: both opiods and used as pain control and sedation. Side effect is respiratory depression (lungs fail to exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen efficiently)
What is delirium and what can be used to treat it?
An acute psychological condition causing a disturbed state of mind. Can lead to severe distress and PTSD.
Drug treatment mostly involves antiphychotics
What are diuretics used for generally and on the critical care units? Name the most common
In general used to reduce blood pressure
Used in critical care to mainitain fluid balance
Main drug is furosemide.
What are bronchodilators used for and give some routes they can be administered
Substance that dilates the bronchi and bronchioles, decreasing resistance in the respiratory airway and increasing airflow to the lungs.
Routes include via inhalers, nebulisers and IV
