Technical Report: Nalbuphine Hydrochloride as Premedication for Radiological Procedures

Nalbuphine hydrochloride, a semi-synthetic agonist/antagonist opioid, has been used in an intravenous injection of 20 mg followed by Diazemuls not less than five minutes later as a premedieation in 462 patients undergoing a range of radiologieal procedures over a 2 year period. In all but two patients excellent sedation was obtained and there were no episodes of respiratory depression nor cardiovascular disturbances. Glanville, J.N. (1990). Clinical Radiology 42, 212 213. Technical Report: Nalbuphine Hydrochloride (Nubain, DuPont) as Premedication for Radiological Procedures The commonly used hypnotic and anxiolytic drugs, benzodiazepines (Diazemuls, Kabivitrum), lorazepam (Ativan, Wyeth) or midazolam (Hypnovel, Roche) have no analgesic effect. Given alone as premedication they can make a patient more restless and uncooperative by reducing conscious control. For efficient premedication these drugs should be combined with analgesics (Glanville, 1978). The analgesics most commonly used, pentazocine (Fortral, Sterling), buprenorphine (Temgesic, Reckitt & Colman) or pethidine hydrochloride all depress respiration, an effect which can be potentiated when used with the anxiolytic agents and to a degree which is difficult to