Hydralazine (Apresoline) Nursing Considerations

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Kara Tarr
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Outline

Generic Name

hydralazine

Trade Name

Apresoline

Indication

hypertension

Action

arterial vasodilation by unclarified mechanism

Therapeutic Class

anti-hypertensive

Pharmacologic Class

vasodilator

Nursing Considerations

• may cause tachycardia, sodium retention, arrhythmias, angina
• use caution with MAOIs
• monitor blood pressure
• instruct patient on how to take blood pressure

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Transcript

Hey guys, let’s talk about hydralazine also known as a pre. This is an oral medication, as you can see here with this packaging, but it also comes in other forms like IV. Okay. Remember when we about the therapeutic class, we’re talking about how the drug works in the body while the pharmacologic class is the chemical effect of the drug. So hydralazine is an anti hypertensive while it’s pharmacologic class is a vasodilator. So the action of hydralazine is it promote arterial, vasodilation, following smooth muscle relaxation, which is why we use it for the treatment of hypertension. So be aware that there are some side effects that come along with hydralazine. These can include angina, tachycardia and even arrhythmias. 

So let’s take a look at a few nursing considerations for hydralazine. Of course, you will want to monitor your patients blood pressure while on therapy, to be sure the treatment and dose are appropriate and are in fact working for your patients, know that hydralazine may cause some sodium retention in your patient use caution in patients who are also on mais and finally teach your patient how to take their own blood pressure, even if it’s at the local pharmacy or with an at home monitor. So here’s an interesting thing about hydralazine. So in combination with ISOR, I nitrates this combination is used for the treatment of CHF and was actually the first drug combination that was approved on the basis of race, as it has shown to be super successful in black patients. That’s it for hydralazine or pres now go out and be your best self today and as always happy nursing.

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Pharmacology for the NCLEX®

The Pharmacology Course is a one-stop-shop for all things medication related! Did you know that nearly 15% of the questions on the NCLEX® are pharmacology related!? We’ll talk you through how to be successful in pharmacology and how to be safe when administering meds. We break down the most common and most important medication classes into easy-to-understand sections. We even walk you through how to conquer the often intimidating med math and drug calculations! When you finish this course, you’ll be able to show on the NCLEX® that you can confidently and safely administer medications to your patients!

Course Lessons

Pharmacology for the NCLEX®
12 Points to Answering Pharmacology Questions
54 Common Medication Prefixes and Suffixes
Therapeutic Drug Levels (Digoxin, Lithium, Theophylline, Phenytoin)
Essential NCLEX Meds by Class
6 Rights of Medication Administration
The SOCK Method – Overview
The SOCK Method – S
The SOCK Method – O
The SOCK Method – C
The SOCK Method – K
Basics of Calculations
Dimensional Analysis Nursing (Dosage Calculations/Med Math)
Oral Medications
Injectable Medications
IV Infusions (Solutions)
Complex Calculations (Dosage Calculations/Med Math)
Renin Angiotensin Aldosterone System
ACE (angiotensin-converting enzyme) Inhibitors
Angiotensin Receptor Blockers
Atypical Antipsychotics
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)
Sympathomimetics (Alpha (Clonodine) & Beta (Albuterol) Agonists)
Parasympathomimetics (Cholinergics) Nursing Considerations
Benzodiazepines
Calcium Channel Blockers
Cardiac Glycosides
Corticosteroids
Diuretics (Loop, Potassium Sparing, Thiazide, Furosemide/Lasix)
Epoetin Alfa
Histamine 1 Receptor Blockers
Histamine 2 Receptor Blockers
HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitors (Statins)
Hydralazine (Apresoline) Nursing Considerations
Insulin
Magnesium Sulfate
MAOIs
Nitro Compounds
NSAIDs
Parasympatholytics (Anticholinergics) Nursing Considerations
Anti-Infective – Penicillins and Cephalosporins
Metronidazole (Flagyl) Nursing Considerations
Ciprofloxacin (Cipro) Nursing Considerations
Vancomycin (Vancocin) Nursing Considerations
Proton Pump Inhibitors
SSRIs
TCAs
Vasopressin