Chlorothiazide

Chlorothiazide sodium (Diuril) is a diuretic used within the hospital setting or for personal use to manage excess fluid associated with congestive heart failure. It is also used as an antihypertensive.

Most often taken in pill form, it is usually taken orally once or twice a day. In the ICU setting, chlorothiazide is given to diurese a patient in addition to furosemide (Lasix). Working in a separate mechanism than furosemide, and absorbed enterically as a reconstituted suspension administered through a nasogastric tube (NG tube), the two drugs potentiate one another without risk of toxicity. Because it is absorbed enterically there are no risks associated with chlorothiazide as there are with furosemide administration.

The Research team of Merck Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories: Karl H. Beyer, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.; James M. Sprague, Ph.D.; John E. Baer, Ph.D.; and Frederick C. Novello, Ph.D. created a new series of medications, the thiazide diuretics, which includes chlorothiazide. They won an Albert Lasker Special Award in 1975 for its creation. http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/formaward.htm

Novello, Frederick C.; Sprague, James M. (1957). Journal of the American Chemical Society 79 (8): 2028. doi:10.1021/ja01565a079.