Pharmaceuticals for Intensive Care Medicine

Anesthesia and intensive care – Lormetazepam as an intravenous solution

Since 2012, anesthetists and intensive-care physicians have been using the intravenously administered lormetazepam. It is mainly applied as a hypnotic, a sleep inducing drug.

Although lormetazepam, a known benzodiazepine, had been around for many years in an oral dosage form, Dr. Franz Köhler Chemie GmbH managed to offer with SEDALAM® (SEDALOR®, SEDALON®) the first and only intravenous formulation of lormetazepam worldwide – by means of galenics that made a water-soluble preparation possible.

Low in side effects, SEDALAM® possesses an extraordinary anxiolytic effect which is not present in this form in other benzodiazepines and sedatives with different basic structures. In addition, the metabolic degradation of lormetazepam is very fast, preventing the occurrence of active metabolites which often cause side effects of other benzodiazepines and sedatives.

SEDALAM® provides the physician with an efficient and almost side-effect-free sedative with particular advantages over products within the same indication spectrum. Hence, an ideal pharmaceutical for application in intensive care medicine.

Another product within that portfolio is ANTICHOLIUM®, enabling the patient to wake up fast and safely after the anesthesia. It antagonizes the anticholinergic substances blocking the cholinergic receptors. This acetylcholinesterase inhibitor increases the concentration of acetylcholine directly at the receptors.

Already in the early 1980s, it was observed after clinical application that ANTICHOLIUM® prevents postoperative delirium and other postoperative disorders. The indication expansion was confirmed by the BfArM (Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices). In recent years, Dr. Franz Köhler Chemie GmbH has initiated comprehensive studies to explore the mechanism of action and the complex pharmacological spectrum. The shortage of acetylcholine is directly related to SIRS (Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome) as an interim step to sepsis. In Germany alone, more than 75,000 patients die of sepsis every year.

Köhler places a large focus on research, and this example shows that we provide huge investments to improve knowledge and contribute, along with leading universities in this field, to preventing sepsis, which so often is still lethal for patients.

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