UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Toxicology

Title: Beware These Medications as Summertime Approaches

Keywords: lithium, digoxin, colchicine, narrow therapeutic index (PubMed Search)

Posted: 6/6/2011 by Bryan Hayes, PharmD (Emailed: 6/9/2011) (Updated: 6/9/2011)
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Dehydration and subsequent prerenal acute kidney injury can result when temperatures begin to rise in the summer months.  As a result, medications with narrow therapeutic indices that are primarily renally excreted may accumulate.  Here are the specific ones to look out for:

  • Digoxin
  • Lithium
  • Colchicine
  • Phenobarbital and theophylline (partially eliminated unchanged by the kidneys)