Neostigmine for colonic pseudo obstruction.

[ayemmeff]

We treated a case of colonic pseudo obstruction on our ward last week with neostigmine IV.

A first for all of us.The ITU doc that came down to administer the drug,frightened the bejesus out of all of us by saying that a common side effect was cardiac arrest.Thanks,*now* we're really confident!!

Thankfully the patient was fine and the pseudo obstruction resolved.

Done some research,and all I have found so far is a study done at a University in Seattle in 1999.Very helpful as far as it goes,but everything else I've found relates back to this same study.

Just wondered if any of you has any 'real life' experiences of this treatment at all? Do you give it on the ward or are the patients transferred to higher dependancy 'just in case'?

(FYI the study showed no cardiac arrests but two cases of bradycardia reversed with atropine.(21 subjects))