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Uses and Precautions when Administering Mannitol Essay

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Mannitol
Mannitol can be truly useful in the clinical setting as a diagnostic agent, osmotic diuretic and urinary irrigant. Mannitol’s chemical class is hexahydroxy alcohol and it is a pregnancy category B drug. Mannitol is a six-carbon sugar and is known by the generic name of mannitol or Osmitrol, which is the most common brand name. Mannitol is usually available in 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% injection form. Mannitol is considered a diuretic which promotes urine production. It is also helpful in preventing the kidney from shutting down. It increases osmotic pressure of the glomerular filtrate, inhibiting reabsorption of water and electrolytes and creates an osmotic gradient in the glomerular filtrate and blood (Lippincott Williams & …show more content…

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (2008) describe the absorption to be administered though I.V. which will result in a rapid distribution that remains in the cell; it is vaguely metabolized and effortlessly filtered by the glomeruli. It is crucial to point that mannitol crosses the placenta and may enter into the breast milk in female patients. Mannitol is usually excreted primarily in urine.
As stated by Ronco, C., Bellomo, R., & Kellum, J. A. (2009), osmotic diuretics like mannitol are distributed rapidly withdrawing water from the intracellular space. As a result, headache, vomiting, and nausea are the most common side effects in patients. If mannitol is used in excess without appropriate water intake it can result in critical dehydration. As mannitol withdraws water from the cells, hydrogen and potassium ions raise causing hypokalemic acidosis. Other possible adverse effects of mannitol are as follow: confusion, disorientation, dizziness, lightheadedness, syncope, vertigo, gastric disturbances, hypernatremia, dehydration, circulatory overload, thrombophlebitis, hypotension, hypertension, edema, tachycardia, chest pain, diuresis and pulmonary congestion
Mannitol contraindicates patients with anuria as a result of acute renal disease, hepatic failure, hypersensitivity to mannitol or its components, severe pulmonary congestion, active intracranial bleeding (with an

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