Pilocarpine contraindications

Bethanechol should not be used in patients with possible mechanical obstruction of the bladder or gastrointestinal tract or when contraction of smooth muscles in these tissues may be harmful (e.g., recent intestinal resection). It is also contraindicated in patients with bronchial asthma, peptic ulcer disease, coronary artery disease, gastrointestinal hypermotility or inflammatory disease, hypotension or marked bradycardia, hyperthyroidism, parkinsonism, or epilepsy. Care should be exercised in administering pilocarpine to elderly patients because it can enter the CNS and affect memory and cognition, even when applied topically to the eye. 

Loss of accommodation and blurred vision are common inconveniences that can usually be tolerated, in the knowledge that they lessen with the duration of treatment. Exacerbation of narrow-angle glaucoma in the elderly can occur, but is not an absolute contraindication to treatment with a tricyclic antidepressant, since the anticholinergic effects can be balanced by judicious use of pilocarpine (73,74). 

Pilocarpine therapy should be avoided in certain patients (Box 10-10).This drug is contraindicated in patients with cataract, especially nuclear sclerotic and posterior subcapsular cataract, because the drug can affect vision and may accelerate the formation of lens opacities. Pilocarpine is generally contraindicated in patients younger than 40 years of age because of the intolerable accommodative spasm and refractive changes. Because breakdown of the blood-aqueous barrier occurs with the use of pilocarpine and other miotics, particularly in the presence of neovascular and uveitic glaucoma, pilocarpine should be avoided in these patients. 

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