Cardiac Medications: Dosages, Preparation and Administration

Abstract

The paediatric and developing age cardiology and heart surgery are the units where I am working. Users are from neonates (most of them with prenatal diagnosis) up to adults, considering that our patients are congenital heart disease patients. As hereby we will only discuss the therapeutic approach, I would like to emphasise that for nurses it is mandatory to know the most used drugs and, in this specific case, to which category the cardiac drugs belong (antiarrhythmic, adrenergic, inotropic, anticoagulant, antiplatelet, beta-blocker, diuretics, vasodilators, ACE inhibitors, cortisone-like drugs, analgesic, antipyretic, immunosuppressant, antibiotics (Cardiologia pediatrica, McGraw-Hill, Milan, p. 333–8, 1998)), its usage, function, any precaution, side effects, administration and storage. The friendly leaflet and its consultation can help us when there is a lack or a doubt regarding a medication. Considering that for newborn patients it is not always suggested on the leaflet the recommended dosage, a hospital treatment form is usually available in the paediatric unit to allow all the staff to check safely all dosages. In this chapter I will discuss about dosages, preparation and administration of the therapy to cardiopath patients.