Health Centres - Combivent metered aerosol
How does it work?
This medicine contains two active ingredients, ipratropium bromide and salbutamol sulphate.
What is it used for?
-
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Warning!
- Inhalers may cause an unexpected increase in wheezing (paradoxical bronchospasm) straight after using them. If this happens, stop using the inhaler immediately and consult your doctor. The medicine should be stopped and an alternative treatment found.
- Consult your doctor immediately if you experience sudden, rapidly worsening, difficulty in breathing, or if this medicine becomes less effective than normal.
- Avoid contact of this medicine with the eyes, especially if you have, or are susceptible to, glaucoma. Seek medical advice if the medicine gets into the eyes.
- Consult your doctor immediately if you experience any of the following while using this medicine: red and painful eye, possibly with headache, loss of vision or blurred vision, seeing haloes around lights. These symptoms may be due to an increase in pressure inside the eyeball and require investigation by your doctor.
- Blood potassium levels should be monitored in people with severe airway obstruction, as low oxygen levels in the blood (hypoxia) and various airway medicines, including this one, can lower blood potassium.
- The safety and efficacy of this medicine in children under 12 years of age have not been established.
Use with caution in
-
Closed angle glaucoma.
-
Cystic fibrosis.
-
Enlarged prostate gland .
-
Hyperthyroidism.
-
Insufficiently controlled diabetes.
-
People who have recently had a heart attack.
- Severe disease resulting from structural deformity of the heart or veins.
- Tumour of the adrenal gland (phaeochromocytoma).
Not to be used in
- Allergy to atropine.
- Allergy to soya lecithin or related food products, eg soya beans or peanuts (applicable to Combivent metered aerosol inhaler only).
- Fast, abnormal heart rhythms (tachyarrhythmias).
- Heart disease characterised by thickening of the internal heart muscle and a blockage inside the heart (hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy).
This medicine should not be used if you are allergic to one or any of its ingredients. Please inform your doctor or pharmacist if you have previously experienced such an allergy.
Pregnancy and breastfeeding
Certain medicines should not be used during pregnancy or breastfeeding. However, other medicines may be safely used in pregnancy or breastfeeding providing the benefits to the mother outweigh the risks to the unborn baby. Always inform your doctor if you are pregnant or planning a pregnancy, before using any medicine.
- This medicine should be used with caution during pregnancy, and only if the expected benefit to the mother is greater than the possible risk to the foetus, particularly in the first trimester. Seek medical advice from your doctor.
- This medicine should be used with caution by breastfeeding mothers, and only if the expected benefit to the mother is greater than any possible risk to the baby. Seek medical advice from your doctor.
Side effects
Medicines and their possible side effects can affect individual people in different ways. The following are some of the side effects that are known to be associated with this medicine. Because a side effect is stated here, it does not mean that all people using this medicine will experience that or any side effect.
- Headache
- Difficulty in passing urine (urinary retention)
- Dry mouth
- Shaking, usually of the hands (tremor)
- Muscle cramps
- Sweating
- Unexpected narrowing of the airways (paradoxical bronchospasm)
- Low blood potassium level (hypokalaemia)
- Awareness of your heartbeat (palpitations)
- Dizziness
- Nausea and vomiting
- Cough
- Nervousness
- Increased heart rate (tachycardia)
- Hypersensitivity reactions such as swelling of the lips, throat and tongue (angioedema), itchy blistering rash or anaphylactic shock
The side effects listed above may not include all of the side effects reported by the drug's manufacturer.
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