Fluid buildup, or congestion, in your lungs or other organs is a common side effect of heart failure, when the heart doesn't pump as well as it should. Congestion worsens heart failure and raises your blood pressure.
Diuretics (also called water pills) are medications that help the body get rid of the excess fluid. At our Diuretic Clinic, we make it easy for you to receive diuretics as soon as you need them.
What Are Diuretics?
Heart failure can affect kidney function, making it difficult for your body to remove salt (sodium) and water. Fluid builds up and causes symptoms including high blood pressure, difficulty breathing (dyspnea) and swelling of your legs or other body parts.
Diuretic medications treat congestion by making you urinate more often to clear out extra fluids. They also widen your blood vessels, making it easier for your heart to pump more blood to the rest of your body and reducing blood pressure.
Diuretics usually start working just an hour or two after you start taking them.
Why Might I Need Diuretics?
Diuretics are often used for people with congestive heart failure who develop high blood pressure. Diuretics are also used to treat conditions including:
- Ascites (fluid in the abdomen)
- Cardiomyopathy
- Diabetes insipidus (excess water in urine)
- Edema (tissue swelling)
- Glaucoma (eye disease that damages the optic nerve)
- Liver failure
- Nephrotic syndrome (excess protein in urine, low protein in blood)
- Pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs)
- Renal (kidney) failure
Diuretic Clinic: The Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health Advantage
Congestion is the leading reason for heart failure hospitalizations. At Penn Medicine Lancaster General Health, kidney experts (nephrologists) and heart failure specialists (cardiologists) work together to treat congestive heart failure.
Our Diuretic Clinic is open Monday through Friday. In most cases, you receive a same-day or next-day appointment scheduled through the Heart Failure Clinic.
What Are the Types of Diuretics?
Doctors use three main types of diuretic medications to treat symptoms in people with heart failure. Each type targets a different part of the kidneys:
- Thiazide diuretics: These diuretics are often recommended as one of the first treatments for high blood pressure. Thiazide diuretics include hydrochlorothiazide and chlorthalidone.
- Loop diuretics: Furosemide (Lasix) is one of the most commonly used loop diuretics to treat swelling in the arms, abdomen or legs. Bumetanide is another loop diuretic option.
- Potassium-sparing: This type of diuretic, such as triamterene, helps your kidneys rid your body of excess salt and water without losing too much potassium.
What Can I Expect at the Diuretic Clinic?
When you check in at our Diuretic Clinic, you have blood drawn for tests. Next, a pharmacist and nurse practitioner review your current medications with you. Together, we plan a personalized treatment, using the lowest dose of diuretics needed to relieve your symptoms.
As an outpatient, you receive diuretic pills. You may also receive several hours of diuretic infusions, usually through an IV in your arm, under the careful supervision of our physicians and nurse practitioners. You urinate many times over the course of treatment.
We'll follow up with you by phone and schedule another set of blood tests several days later. Your doctor may combine diuretics with other blood pressure medications or ask you to reduce your liquid and salt intake during treatment.
Diuretics can affect your blood potassium or magnesium levels, increasing your risk of complications such as heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias). Your doctor may recommend nutritional supplements or dietary changes, so you get the vitamins and minerals you need.
Diuretics do not always work to reduce fluid overload in the body. If this happens, we may recommend ultrafiltration, a minimally invasive procedure done in the hospital to remove excess fluid from your body.
Contact Us
To learn more about our heart and vascular care, call 717-544-8300.