![]() ![]() High dose glucagon increases heart rate, improves AV conduction and improves myocardial contractility. Patients taking too much of their beta blocker medication (such as lebatalol) can present with serious bradycardia, hypotension, bronchospasm, AV blocks, heart failure and even seizures. It can also cause confusion, agitation, hypertension, and alterations in heart rate (either too fast or too slow). Flumazenil is given IV, but be aware that it can lower the patient’s seizure threshold significantly and seizure is a very real possibility in patients who are habitual benzodiazepine users. If the patient is also receiving medications that cause respiratory depression (such as opioids) the degree of respiratory depression can be profound. In severe cases the patient may be comatose and unable to protect their airway or ventilate properly. It can cause agitation, hypertension and even ventricular tachycardia in high doses.Ī benzodiazepine overdose depresses the central nervous system causing slurred speech, decreased level of consciousness and ataxia. Naloxone can be given IV, IM, SubQ, in nebulized form or as a nasal spray. If they do, the patient may need another dose of naloxone. The key thing you need to know about naloxone is that its duration of action is typically shorter than that of the opioid, so you need to monitor your patient closely and watch for signs of overdose to reappear. Naloxone reverses the effects of opioids by kicking the opioid off the receptor sites and binding them up for a period of time. We’ll start with one you’ve likely already heard of, thanks to the opioid epidemic in the United States. In this blog post we’ll talk about some of the most common meds that, if overdone, may require emergent reversal. ![]() And while not all medications have a reversal, some of them do and it’s important to know what they are. Some medications can cause life-threatening conditions such as respiratory depression, bradycardia and even bleeding. ![]() From that discussion we arrived at the topic of reversal agents for medication overdoses. As we were discussing the RRT nurse’s role, we got to talking about emergent situations seen in the clinical setting. During the early days of my nursing career when I was in my residency, I had the opportunity to shadow a member of the rapid response team (RRT). ![]()
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