Source: Medicines & Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (GB) Revision Year: 2018 Publisher: Baxter Healthcare, Caxton Way, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 3SE, United Kingdom
Pharmacotherapeutic group: solutions producing osmotic diuresis
ATC code: B05BC01
Mannitol, a carbohydrate, is confined to the extracellular compartment. It has an osmotic effect which causes fluid to pass from the intracellular to the extracellular compartment.
Mannitol is freely filterable at the kidney glomerulus and less than 10% is reabsorbed back from the kidney tubule. In the kidney tubules, mannitol exerts an osmotic effect which diminishes water reabsorption from the glomerular filtrate and produces diuresis. Mannitol thereby promotes urine flow in oliguria/anuria or in situations where the patient is at risk of onset of acute renal failure. Mannitol also increases electrolyte excretion, especially sodium, potassium and chloride. Excretion of renally excreted substances such as salicylates and barbiturates is also increased.
Mannitol does not penetrate the intact blood-brain barrier under usual circumstances. Confined to the plasma, mannitol exerts an osmotic pressure, causing fluid to leave the brain tissue, and brain volume and intracranial pressure to be reduced.
Mannitol does not penetrate the eye. Mannitol reduces the intraocular pressure due to its osmotic effect.
When administered intravenously, mannitol is eliminated largely unmetabolised through the glomeruli. Only 10% is reabsorbed back from the kidney tubule. The elimination half-life in adults is approximately 2 hours, longer where renal failure is present. 80% of an intravenous dose is excreted unchanged within 3 hours.
There are no preclinical data of relevance to the prescriber, which are additional to that already included in other sections of SPC.
© All content on this website, including data entry, data processing, decision support tools, "RxReasoner" logo and graphics, is the intellectual property of RxReasoner and is protected by copyright laws. Unauthorized reproduction or distribution of any part of this content without explicit written permission from RxReasoner is strictly prohibited. Any third-party content used on this site is acknowledged and utilized under fair use principles.
