A comparative study of intravenous labetalol VS intravenous nitroglycerin in the treatment of hypertensive crises

Abstract

Hypertensive crises is still a major public health problem, causing end organ damage like myocardial infarction, stroke, and renal failure. Labetalol and nitroglycerine are among the two most commonly used medicine to control the blood pressure, but there is no head to head comparison between these two medicines. This was a prospective randomized non-blinded study which included 50 patients of hypertensive crises, out which 25 patients received intravenous labetalol and 25 patients received intravenous nitroglycerine. We found that labetalol controlled the blood pressure more rapidly in comparison to nitroglycerine, without causing any extra side effect.

Keywords

• Hypertensive crises
• Hypertensive urgency
• Hypertensive emergency
• Labetalol
• Nitroglycerine