Rectal Administration

[xt1]

Hey everybody,

Me and a group of others will be presenting information on rectal administration of drugs. Anyone have anything interesting to seway about the topic? So far I have some basic facts but would love to hear any real life situations or stories.

What I have so far:

Advantages:

-relatively rapid absorption

-good alternative to oral when patient experiences nausea or vomiting

-useful for local and system drug therapies.

-usually leads to mixed first pass and non-first pass metabolism

Disadvantages

-uncomfortable and embarrassing.

-higher cost than oral meds

Nursing Considerations

-absorption erratic and unpredictable

[EricJRN, MSN, RN]

Have you read about Diastat? Prehospital providers and family members of seizure patients now have an alternative to IV Valium/diazepam, as it can be particularly difficult to start an IV on a patient in status epilepticus.

[xt1]

No I haven't. Thanks for the info. I'm reading about it now.

[nursechris1]

In hospice, we use medications per the rectal route when the patient cannot swallow, or is having a great deal of nausea. There are many drugs that can be given rectally, including oxycontin tabs. We also use compounded drugs. The pharmacy mixes a combination of drugs and puts them in suppository form. For nausea, we use ativan, benadryl, reglan, and haldol. This is very effective, and the patient doesn't have to try to swallow 4 separate medications.