A single dose of sildenafil, a blood vessel widening vasodilator, prevented rebound pulmonary hypertension and significantly reduced the duration of mechanical ventilation in intensive care unit (ICU) infants being withdrawn from inhaled nitric oxide therapy.
In medicine, pulmonary hypertension (PH) is an increase in blood pressure in the pulmonary artery or lung vasculature, leading to shortness of breath, dizziness, fainting, and other symptoms, all of which are exacerbated by exertion. Depending on the cause, pulmonary hypertension can be a severe disease with a markedly decreased exercise tolerance and right-sided heart failure. It was first identified by Dr Ernst von Romberg in 1891. It can be one of five different types, arterial, venous, hypoxic, thromboembolic, or miscellaneous.
This research appears in the first issue for November 2006 of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
Lara Shekerdemian, M.D., of the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia, and five associates gave a single dose of sildenafil to 15 infants undergoing withdrawal from inhaled nitric oxide therapy. None experienced rebound pulmonary hypertension, a common therapeutic complication.