Subdermal injection as a mode of administration of mercurial diuretics.

Abstract

The organic mercurial diuretics are usually administered by intravenous or intramuscular injection. The intravenous route has in recent years become less popular because of serious reactions. Perivenous infiltration sometimes resulted in thrombophlebitis. Also, several reports of sudden deaths have appeared in the literature. 1 Although possible improvement in the methods of manufacture and the combination of these compounds with theophylline have reduced their irritant properties 2 so that sloughs are now uncommon, considerable irritant action still remains, and standard writings on the subject warn against the subcutaneous injection or fail to mention it as an acceptable route of administration. 3 While intramuscular injection is not entirely free from pain or other discomforts in many patients, and in some these are fairly severe, this is now generally the method of choice. A blind-test study which we made a few years ago 4 showed that the compounds vary in the intensity of