Epoprostenol Side Effects

Brand Names: Flolan, Veletri

Please note - some side effects for Epoprostenol may not be reported. Always consult your doctor or healthcare specialist for medical advice. You may also report side effects to the FDA.

Side Effects of Epoprostenol - for the Consumer

Epoprostenol

All medicines may cause side effects, but many people have no, or minor, side effects. Check with your doctor if any of these most COMMON side effects persist or become bothersome when using Epoprostenol:

Abnormal skin sensations (eg, burning, numbness, tingling); agitation; anxiety; back pain; bleeding, pain, redness, or swelling at the injection site; constipation; diarrhea; dizziness; flu-like symptoms (eg, mild fever, mild chills, muscle aches); flushing; headache; loss of appetite; muscle, bone, joint, or jaw pain; nausea; nervousness; stomach pain or upset; sweating; tiredness; trouble sleeping; vomiting.

Seek medical attention right away if any of these SEVERE side effects occur when using Epoprostenol:

Severe allergic reactions (rash; hives; itching; difficulty breathing; tightness in the chest; swelling of the mouth, face, lips, or tongue); bloody or dark urine; chest pain; dark, tarry, or bloody stools; fainting; fast, slow, or irregular heartbeat; light-headedness; new or worsening shortness of breath; pale skin; severe or persistent dizziness; skin ulcers; symptoms of infection (eg, fever, chills, sore throat, cough); tremor; unusual or increased bruising or bleeding; unusual tiredness or weakness.

This is not a complete list of all side effects that may occur. If you have questions about side effects, contact your health care provider. Call your doctor for medical advice about side effects. To report side effects to the appropriate agency, please read the Guide to Reporting Problems to FDA.

Top

Epoprostenol Side Effects - for the Professional

Epoprostenol

Clinical Trials Experience

Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice.

During clinical trials, adverse events were classified as follows: (1) adverse events during dose initiation and escalation, (2) adverse events during chronic dosing, and (3) adverse events associated with the drug delivery system.

Adverse Events During Dose Initiation and Escalation

During early clinical trials, Epoprostenol was increased in 2-ng/kg/min increments until the patients developed symptomatic intolerance. The most common adverse events and the adverse events that limited further increases in dose were generally related to vasodilation, the major pharmacologic effect of Epoprostenol. The most common dose-limiting adverse events (occurring in ≥1% of patients) were nausea, vomiting, headache, hypotension, and flushing, but also include chest pain, anxiety, dizziness, bradycardia, dyspnea, abdominal pain, musculoskeletal pain, and tachycardia. Table 4 lists the adverse events reported during dose initiation and escalation in decreasing order of frequency.

Table 4: Adverse Events During Dose Initiation and Escalation

Adverse Events Occurring in ≥1% of Patients	Epoprostenol (n = 391)
Flushing	58%
Headache	49%
Nausea/vomiting	32%
Hypotension	16%
Anxiety, nervousness, agitation	11%
Chest pain	11%
Dizziness	8%
Bradycardia	5%
Abdominal pain	5%
Musculoskeletal pain	3%
Dyspnea	2%
Back pain	2%
Sweating	1%
Dyspepsia	1%
Hypesthesia/paresthesia	1%
Tachycardia	1%

Adverse Events During Chronic Administration for PPH

Interpretation of adverse events is complicated by the clinical features of PPH and PH/SSD, which are similar to some of the pharmacologic effects of Epoprostenol (e.g., dizziness, syncope). Adverse events probably related to the underlying disease include dyspnea, fatigue, chest pain, edema, hypoxia, right ventricular failure, and pallor. Several adverse events, on the other hand, can clearly be attributed to Epoprostenol. These include headache, jaw pain, flushing, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, flu-like symptoms, and anxiety/nervousness.

In an effort to separate the adverse effects of the drug from the adverse effects of the underlying disease, Table 5 lists adverse events that occurred at a rate at least 10% different in the 2 groups in controlled trials for PPH.

Table 5: Adverse Events Regardless of Attributions Occurring in Patients With PPH With ≥ 10% Difference Between Epoprostenol and Conventional Therapy Alone

Adverse Event	Epoprostenol (n = 52)	Conventional Therapy (n = 54)
Occurrence More Common With Epoprostenol
General
Chills/fever/sepsis/flu-like symptoms	25%	11%
Cardiovascular
Tachycardia	35%	24%
Flushing	42%	2%
Gastrointestinal
Diarrhea	37%	6%
Nausea/vomiting	67%	48%
Musculoskeletal
Jaw pain	54%	0%
Myalgia	44%	31%
Nonspecific musculoskeletal pain	35%	15%
Neurological
Anxiety/nervousness/tremor	21%	9%
Dizziness	83%	70%
Headache	83%	33%
Hypesthesia, hyperesthesia, paresthesia	12%	2%
Occurrence More Common With Standard Therapy
Cardiovascular
Heart failure	31%	52%
Syncope	13%	24%
Shock	0%	13%
Respiratory
Hypoxia	25%	37%

Thrombocytopenia has been reported during uncontrolled clinical trials in patients receiving Epoprostenol.

Table 6 lists additional adverse events reported in PPH patients receiving Epoprostenol plus conventional therapy or conventional therapy alone during controlled clinical trials.

Table 6: Adverse Events Regardless of Attribution Occurring In Patients with PPH With <10% Difference between Epoprostenol and Conventional Therapy

Adverse Event	Epoprostenol (n = 52)	Conventional Therapy (n = 54)
General
Asthenia	87%	81%
Cardiovascular
Angina pectoris	19%	20%
Arrhythmia	27%	20%
Bradycardia	15%	9%
Supraventricular tachycardia	8%	0%
Pallor	21%	30%
Cyanosis	31%	39%
Palpitation	63%	61%
Cerebrovascular accident	4%	0%
Hemorrhage	19%	11%
Hypotension	27%	31%
Myocardial ischemia	2%	6%
Gastrointestinal
Abdominal Pain	27%	31%
Anorexia	25%	30%
Ascites	12%	17%
Constipation	6%	2%
Metabolic
Edema	60%	63%
Hypokalemia	6%	4%
Weight reduction	27%	24%
Weight gain	6%	4%
Musculoskeletal
Arthralgia	6%	0%
Bone pain	0%	4%
Chest pain	67%	65%
Neurological
Confusion	6%	11%
Convulsion	4%	0%
Depression	37%	44%
Insomnia	4%	4%
Respiratory
Cough increase	38%	46%
Dyspnea	90%	85%
Epistaxis	4%	2%
Pleural effusion	4%	2%
Skin and Appendages
Pruritus	4%	0%
Rash	10%	13%
Sweating	15%	20%
Special Senses
Amblyopia	8%	4%
Vision abnormality	4%	0%

Adverse Events During Chronic Administration for PH/SSD

In an effort to separate the adverse effects of the drug from the adverse effects of the underlying disease, Table 7 lists adverse events that occurred at a rate at least 10% different in the 2 groups in the controlled trial for patients with PH/SSD.

Table 7: Adverse Events Regardless of Attribution Occurring in Patients With PH/SSD With ≥10% Difference Between Epoprostenol and Conventional Therapy Alone

Adverse Event	Epoprostenol (n = 56)	Conventional Therapy (n = 55)
Occurrence More Common With Epoprostenol
Cardiovascular
Flushing	23%	0%
Hypotension	13%	0%
Gastrointestinal
Anorexia	66%	47%
Nausea/vomiting	41%	16%
Diarrhea	50%	5%
Musculoskeletal
Jaw pain	75%	0%
Pain/neck pain/arthralgia	84%	65%
Neurological
Headache	46%	5%
Skin and Appendages
Skin ulcer	39%	24%
Eczema/rash/urticaria	25%	4%
Occurrence More Common With Conventional Therapy
Cardiovascular
Cyanosis	54%	80%
Pallor	32%	53%
Syncope	7%	20%
Gastrointestinal
Ascites	23%	33%
Esophageal reflux/gastritis	61%	73%
Metabolic
Weight decrease	45%	56%
Neurological
Dizziness	59%	76%
Respiratory
Hypoxia	55%	65%

Table 8 lists additional adverse events reported in PH/SSD patients receiving Epoprostenol plus conventional therapy or conventional therapy alone during controlled clinical trials.

Table 8: Adverse Events Regardless of Attribution Occurring in Patients With PH/SSD With <10% Difference Between Epoprostenol and Conventional Therapy Alone

Adverse Event*	Epoprostenol (n = 56)	Conventional Therapy (n = 55)
* Adverse events that occurred in at least 2 patients in either treatment group.
General
Asthenia	100%	98%
Hemorrhage/hemorrhage injection site/hemorrhage rectal	11%	2%
Infection/rhinitis	21%	20%
Chills/fever/sepsis/flu-like symptoms	13%	11%
Blood and Lymphatic
Thrombocytopenia	4%	0%
Cardiovascular
Heart failure/heart failure right	11%	13%
Myocardial Infarction	4%	0%
Palpitation	63%	71%
Shock	5%	5%
Tachycardia	43%	42%
Vascular disorder peripheral	96%	100%
Vascular disorder	95%	89%
Gastrointestinal
Abdominal enlargement	4%	0%
Abdominal pain	14%	7%
Constipation	4%	2%
Flatulence	5%	4%
Metabolic
Edema/edema peripheral/edema genital	79%	87%
Hypercalcemia	48%	51%
Hyperkalemia	4%	0%
Thirst	0%	4%
Musculoskeletal
Arthritis	52%	45%
Back pain	13%	5%
Chest pain	52%	45%
Cramps leg	5%	7%
Respiratory
Cough increase	82%	82%
Dyspnea	100%	100%
Epistaxis	9%	7%
Pharyngitis	5%	2%
Pleural effusion	7%	0%
Pneumonia	5%	0%
Pneumothorax	4%	0%
Pulmonary edema	4%	2%
Respiratory disorder	7%	4%
Neurological
Anxiety/hyperkinesia/nervousness/tremor	7%	5%
Depression/depression psychotic	13%	4%
Hyperesthesia/hypesthesia/paresthesia	5%	0%
Insomnia	9%	0%
Somnolence	4%	2%
Skin and Appendages
Collagen disease	82%	84%
Pruritus	4%	2%
Sweat	41%	36%
Urogenital
Hematuria	5%	0%
Urinary tract infection	7%	0%

Although the relationship to Epoprostenol administration has not been established, pulmonary embolism has been reported in several patients taking Epoprostenol and there have been reports of hepatic failure.

Adverse Events Attributable to the Drug Delivery System

Chronic infusions of Epoprostenol are delivered using a small, portable infusion pump through an indwelling central venous catheter. During controlled PPH trials of up to 12 weeks' duration, up to 21% of patients reported a local infection and up to 13% of patients reported pain at the injection site. During a controlled PH/SSD trial of 12 weeks' duration, 14% of patients reported a local infection and 9% of patients reported pain at the injection site. During long-term follow-up in the clinical trial of PPH, sepsis was reported at least once in 14% of patients and occurred at a rate of 0.32 infections/patient per year in patients treated with Epoprostenol. This rate was higher than reported in patients using chronic indwelling central venous catheters to administer parenteral nutrition, but lower than reported in oncology patients using these catheters. Malfunctions in the delivery system resulting in an inadvertent bolus of or a reduction in Epoprostenol were associated with symptoms related to excess or insufficient Epoprostenol, respectively [see ADVERSE REACTIONS, Clinical Trials Experience, Adverse Events During Chronic Administration for PPH (6.1)].

Post-Marketing Experience

In addition to adverse reactions reported from clinical trials, the following events have been identified during post-approval use of Epoprostenol. Because they are reported voluntarily from a population of unknown size, estimates of frequency cannot be made. These events have been chosen for inclusion due to a combination of their seriousness, frequency of reporting, or potential causal connection to Epoprostenol.

Blood and Lymphatic: Anemia, hypersplenism, pancytopenia, splenomegaly.

Endocrine and Metabolic: Hyperthyroidism

Top

Side Effects by Body System - for Healthcare Professionals

General

Adverse effects due to epoprostenol are often difficult to distinguish from the symptoms of primary pulmonary hypertension. Adverse effects due to the disease state have included dyspnea, fatigue, chest pain, right ventricular failure and pallor. Side effects more common due to the drug have included headache, jaw pain, flushing, diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, flu-like symptoms and anxiety.

Cardiovascular

Bugiardini and colleagues reported that epoprostenol at therapeutic doses has been shown to induced myocardial ischemia (angina, ST segment depression, reduced lactate consumption) in patients with advanced coronary artery disease. The mechanism may be due to a maldistribution of blood flow. Counteraction of ischemia was achieved with aminophylline.

Proarrhythmic and antiarrhythmic effects have been rarely reported. In one study, epoprostenol infusion increased the induction of atrial and ventricular arrhythmias and decreased atrial and AV nodal conduction times possibly related to an increase in adrenergic tone.

Davenport and colleagues reported on 8 patients receiving direct femoral infusions of epoprostenol (5 ng/kg/min) for 30 minutes prior to hemodialysis to prevent extracorporeal clotting. All patients had fulminant hepatic failure and acute renal failure due to acetaminophen self-poisoning. Mean arterial pressure, cerebral perfusion pressure and arterial oxygen pressure all decreased. Intracranial pressure increased while cardiac output did not change. Four of these patients subsequently died due to cerebral edema. The authors suggest to administer epoprostenol only via the infusion port on the extracorporeal circuit, and not directly, in patients with hepatic and renal failure requiring hemodialysis to help prevent changes in cerebral perfusion pressure and oxygen delivery.

Zusman and colleagues reported that epoprostenol at 8 ng/kg/min, compared to 2 ng/kg/min or 4 ng/kg/min lead to increased adverse effects in patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis anticoagulation. Hypotension was the primary adverse cardiovascular event requiring discontinuation of the higher dosage. Hemodynamic changes included a decreased blood pressure and increased heart rate. Patients with chronic renal failure may exhibit increased hemodynamic sensitivity, possibly due to higher basal plasma prostaglandin levels.

Cardiovascular side effects have included flushing (58% of patients) and hypotension (16%). These two side effects are commonly dose-limiting in the acute dose-ranging phase of epoprostenol administration. These effects have usually occurred due to potent vasodilation. Chest pain (11%), bradycardia (5%) and tachycardia (1%) have also been reported during acute dosing. Adverse cardiovascular events occurring during chronic infusions include tachycardia (35%) and flushing (42%). Fatal cerebral edema has been reported.

Nervous system

In dose-ranging studies headache was the dose-limiting side effect most frequently reported.

Nervous system side effects have included reports of headache (due to vasodilation) in approximately 50% of patients during acute dose ranging and in 83% of patients during chronic dosing. Anxiety, nervousness, and agitation have been reported in 11% of patients and dizziness in 8% of patients during acute phase dose ranging. Anxiety, nervousness and tremor have been reported in 21% of patients during the chronic phase.

Gastrointestinal

Gastrointestinal side effects have included reports of nausea and vomiting in 32% of patients during the acute dose ranging phase and in 67% of patients during chronic dosing. Dyspepsia and abdominal pain have occurred in less than 5% of patients during acute dosing. Diarrhea has been reported in 67% of patients during the chronic phase.

Zusman and colleagues reported that epoprostenol at 8 ng/kg/min, compared to 2 ng/kg/min or 4 ng/kg/min lead to increased adverse effects in patients with chronic renal failure undergoing hemodialysis anticoagulation. Nausea and vomiting were the 2 primary adverse gastrointestinal events requiring discontinuation of the higher dosage.

Musculoskeletal

Musculoskeletal side effects have included rare reports of back pain and musculoskeletal pain during acute dosing. In the chronic phase, jaw pain (54%), myalgia (44%), and general musculoskeletal pain have been reported.

Other

Other side effects have included reports of jaw pain in 54% of patients on chronic infusions. Chills, fever, sepsis, and flu-like symptoms have been reported in 25% of patients. Ascites and pleural effusions have been reported. Adverse effects due to mechanical problems with the infusion pump have occurred. Tachyphylaxis, defined as an increased requirement for epoprostenol over time (due to tolerance to the drug and not due to disease progression) has been reported. In general, doses of epoprostenol will need to be increased routinely.

Barst et al (1994) reported that 5 of 18 patients experienced 8 mechanical problems, including pump malfunction, and problems with syringe, tubing and catheter systems. When the epoprostenol was temporarily discontinued to remedy the problems, the patients experienced increased pulmonary hypertension symptoms, including syncope. One episode was fatal. Clotting occurred 9 times in 5 patients. One episode, resulting in sepsis, was fatal.

Jones and colleagues report the occurrence of sterile ascites in 3 patients during long-term epoprostenol treatment. Protein content and aspartate aminotransferases levels were elevated. In 2 patients the ascites was recurrent. Death occurred in one patient whose ascites was chylous (thick milky-white or pale yellow appearance).

Hematologic

Hematologic side effects have included reports of sepsis, usually due to infections from the indwelling catheter tip. Thrombocytopenia has been observed during uncontrolled clinical trials; however, it is not known if clinically significant bleeding occurred due to thrombocytopenia.

Barst and colleagues (1994) reported 7 episodes of nonfatal sepsis due to catheter tips in 3 of 18 patients receiving epoprostenol for primary pulmonary hypertension. One patient died due to sepsis after a thrombus was removed from the catheter. Jones and colleagues report that 3 of 10 patients acquired septicemia due to catheter tip infections. In each case, subjective wellbeing and exercise capacity decreased. Antibiotics were effective; however, in one patient a peripheral line had to be placed until the infection cleared.

Endocrine

Endocrine side effects have included rare reports of sweating during acute dosing.

Respiratory

Respiratory side effects have included rare report of dyspnea during acute dosing. Additional side effects have included hypoxia and pulmonary edema.

Local

Local side effects have included injection site pain (13%) and local infection (21%).

Peripheral venous local reactions (bright red veins, induration, tenderness) have been noted with epoprostenol infusion, but have resolved within 30 minutes after discontinuation of the infusion. The high pH of the buffer may have been responsible.

Psychiatric

Psychiatric side effects have included reports of depression.

Psychiatric side effects have included reports of depression in women receiving epoprostenol infusions for Raynaud's phenomenon or systemic sclerosis. Antidepressant therapy was successful in several cases.

Ocular

Ocular side effects have included reports of photosensitivity.

Dermatologic

Dermatologic side effects have included rash.

Top

Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to ensure that the information provided is accurate, up-to-date, and complete, but no guarantee is made to that effect. In addition, the drug information contained herein may be time sensitive and should not be utilized as a reference resource beyond the date hereof. This information does not endorse drugs, diagnose patients, or recommend therapy. This drug information is a reference resource designed as supplement to, and not a substitute for, the expertise, skill , knowledge, and judgement of healthcare practitioners in patient care. The absence of a warning for a given drug or drug combination in no way should be construed to indicate that the drug of drug combination is safe, effective, or appropriate for any given patient. Drugs.com does not assume any responsibility for any aspect of healthcare administered with the aid of information provided. The information contained herein is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, warnings, drug interactions, allergic reactions, or adverse effects. If you have questions about the drugs you are taking, check with your doctor, nurse, or pharmacist.