Albuterol – Proair – Ventolin – Proventil
Hi my name is angela woolf i’m a pharmd candidate from california north state university and today i’ll be talking about albuterol hfa which also goes by the brand names pro air provental and ventolin it come in comes in this aerosolized form and comes at a dose of 90 micrograms per actuation so i’ll be going over some patient counseling points that cover um
What this drug is used for what you should tell your doctor before taking this medication some things you need to know while taking this drug as well as side effects also i’ll be talking about storage administration and what to do if you miss a dose so albuterol hfa is an aerosolized form of albuterol and it’s used to open the airways in different lung diseases
Where breathing can be problematic and your airways spasm this can also happen when people exercise as well so it can be used for breathing problems during exercise so a couple things you should tell your doctor before taking this medication are if you know if you have any allergies to this medication or any component of the medication or if you’re using another
Medication that’s similar to this one some things you might need to know while taking this medication is if you start taking this medication and it doesn’t help with your breathing um like you have a an asthma attack or anything like that and the dose doesn’t seem to work work well um if it seems to get worse while you’re on it um also if you are a diabetic patient
You need to make sure to watch your blood sugars closely while you’re using this medication if you’re pregnant plan on getting pregnant or if you’re breastfeeding you want to talk to your doctor about the benefits versus the risks of taking this medication some side effects that you’d need to talk to your doctor about right away are any signs of an allergic reaction
High blood pressure low potassium any experience of chest pain or chest pressure anything that really has to do with the heart um you would want to call your doctor about right away um also sometimes it doesn’t help resolve breathing problems but sometimes can make it worse so that’s something you would also want to talk to your doctor about some other side
Effects of medication are feeling nervousness or excitable you can also get a headache or feel dizzy you can also experience upset stomach shakiness can also cause some minor irritation to the throat and also a runny nose now when you store this medication you want to make sure to protect it from any heat and sunlight um it is very flammable so you want to make
Sure not to puncture it or burn it even if it seems like all the medication is gone and when um on this medication you’ll see the number of sprays that you have left so you want to throw away the inhaler when you see that all of the sprays have been used you might shake it and it might feel like there’s something in there but if it says zero you want to just go
Ahead and throw it away when you do store this medication there is a mouthpiece so when you store it you want to make sure that the mouthpiece is facing downwards so this medication is best taken if you’re using it for breathing problems this can happen with exercise or um if it’s used specifically for exercise you want to make sure to use it 15 minutes to a half
Hour before you work out also if you’re taking more than one drug that you’re inhaling you want to talk to your doctor about which medication you should be using first when you use this inhaler you want to make sure to shake it well before you use it normally you can shake it for around five seconds um also you’ll need to do what we call priming the inhaler first
Before the first time you use it so i’ll explain some more of this later on in the presentation also for some um it can be kind of hard to coordinate the spray and inhale so sometimes you can use what we call a spacer with the inhaler that helps with its use and making sure that the medication is getting into your body properly now if you miss a dose um you
Want to make sure that you take it as soon as you remember but if it’s close to your next dose you can go ahead and skip that missed dose and go back to your normal schedule now this medication sometimes is only taken on an as needed basis so um if you are taking it for like the regular schedules medication um just take it as soon as you remember just make sure
Not to double up on doses or take any extra doses and again it can be used on as needed basis so you wouldn’t have to worry about any of those misdoses so talking about indication and dosing for albuterol hfa it’s indicated for bronchospasm and specifically in the treatment or prevention for bronchospasms in patients with obstructive airway disease also it’s
Used for exercise induced bronchospasm and is used specifically for prevention so like i mentioned earlier you can take it 15 to 30 minutes before your workout it’s indicated in both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which we also know know as copd um in asthma we could use the metered dose inhaler which is the hfa form it comes in the strength of
90 micrograms per actuation or per puff so typically somebody would do two inhalations or two puffs every four to six hours as needed can do up to four inhalations or four puffs every four to six hours for moderate to severe symptoms in copd for acute symptom relief you can use it again on as needed basis rather than just a scheduled medication again you could
Use the metered dose inhaler which is the hfa form and comes in the same strength and again two puffs or two inhalations every four to six hours as needed so the mechanism of action of albuterol is when it acts on the bodies it acts on the beta 2 receptors which are located in on the lungs so it causes a relaxation of the bronchial smooth muscle to open up those
Airways some drug interactions with albuterol include beta blocker beta blockers specifically non-selective beta blockers what this can do is it can actually decrease the um the bronchodilatory effects of beta-2 agonists so we want to make sure to avoid this combination some monitoring parameters of albuterol include those that are related to um breathing so
Our peak flow our fev1 also we want to look at blood pressure and heart rate cns stimulation want to make sure to monitor serum glucose specifically in patients who are diabetic also serum potassium and also any asthma symptoms whether they’re getting worse or resolving so talking about administration i’m going to go ahead and start with patients who are maybe
Using this inhaler for the first time so um albuterol hfa is considered an mdi which is a metered dose inhaler when you use this medication for the first time i mentioned earlier that we would need to prime the inhaler first so priming the inhaler we want to first make sure to shake the medication for five seconds once we have shaken the medication we want to
Make sure to press down on the canister with our index finger to release medication now when you do this you want to make sure to hold the inhaler and the mouthpiece away from you to make sure that you don’t get any medication in your eyes or maybe even accidentally inhale any after you’ve done one spray you want to wait a few seconds again you’re going to shake
The inhaler and press the canister down again and you’re going to go ahead and repeat this two more times for a total of four sprays now after you’ve primed the inhaler with your four sprays now we’re ready to administer the medication so if you look to the right here um we’re gonna go ahead and make sure that um we have the cap removed from the mouthpiece
And again you’re gonna make sure that you shake it well so again for five seconds you’ll shake your your inhaler now you’re to hold the inhaler upright so with the canister facing up your index finger is going to be above and your thumb is going to be supporting the bottom of the inhaler now you want to make sure that you’re not covering the mouthpiece now you
Want to make sure to take a deep exhale out but breathe normally and you’re going to place the mouthpiece of the inhaler between your teeth but make sure to form a tight seal with your lips around the mouthpiece also one thing to know is you don’t want to block that opening with your tongue just because that’s where the medication is going to be coming out now
You can start to go ahead now that you have the tight seal you can start to breathe in slowly and as you breathe in slowly you want to press down on the canister one time and go ahead and continue breathing in slowly and deeply and you sometimes you can count down from five but just completely breathe in and hold your breath for as long as you can typically 10
Seconds just to make sure all the medication is reaching your airways in the lungs now depending on your dose you can go ahead and after you’ve held your breath you can repeat then the same steps that i just discussed right now and do that for every puff so if you’re doing two puffs you could go ahead and repeat that again um just make sure that you wait 15
To 30 seconds between your next puff and make sure to shake the canister again and then when you’re finished you can go ahead and put the mouthpiece back on and store it face down some side effects of albuterol include cardiovascular effects cns effects and respiratory effects i know that we talked about um albuterol resolving bronchospasms but sometimes it can
Exacerbate this especially um in patients with underlying disease in terms of cns effects like i talked about that side effect of excitement nervousness tremor anxiety any hyperactive behavior sometimes it can also cause insomnia now albuterol acts on the beta-2 receptors so sometimes it can cause effect on the heart so such as tachycardia arrhythmias it can
Cause qt interval changes so these are some things that we want to look out for some warnings and precautions when using albuterol hfa are in patients specifically who have cardiovascular disease like i mentioned earlier it can have some effect on the heart so we want to use it in caution with patients with cardiovascular disease patients with diabetes again it
Can cause increased glucose levels so we want to make sure to monitor that it also may elevate intraocular pressure which can cause glaucoma and also it can stimulate thyroid activity so it can cause hyperthyroidism um potassium was some one thing that we wanted to monitor beta 2 agonists can decrease potassium levels so we’re going to look out for hypokalemia
And also we talked about the cns stimulation so we want to be careful for to look out for any signs or symptoms of seizures in patients using this medication and this can close my presentation on albuterol hfa here are my references
Transcribed from video
Albuterol HFA Drug Information Summary By Riverside Rx Services
