Saline for inhalation

Sodium chloride is a common salt, abundant in sea water and a powerful antiseptic. The drug based on it, known as saline and having a concentration of 0.9%, is extremely versatile, while it has a low price. Most often, sodium chloride saline solution is recommended as a liquid for diluting drugs used for inhalation with a nebulizer. What does it give and how to carry out the procedure?

What is saline used for?

The main reason for its universality lies in the fact that, by osmotic pressure, it is similar to the intracellular fluid, as a result of which it does not cause destruction of cell membranes.

The easiest way to use saline is to dissolve drugs for intravenous and intramuscular injections, but the range of its possibilities is much broader in its pure form: from enemas to mucosal washes for wounds, burns, operations (and after them). It is possible to cleanse the cornea of ​​the eye, the mucous membrane of the nasal passages, gargling, and inhalation. The last option is to particularly focus.

• Local use of the drug does not provide for any contraindications: both the treatment of mucous membranes and inhalations are allowed, even for pregnant women and children from the first day of life.
• Most often for inhalation, sodium chloride saline is diluted with some liquid medicine: for example, with drugs to thin the sputum in the treatment of cough. The main indications for procedures based on it are respiratory diseases, including asthma. For nasopharynx, trachea and larynx inhalation with saline makes no sense, because the size of the drops will not allow them to settle in these areas.

Experts claim that sodium chloride saline solution does not have to be purchased at the pharmacy: in case of urgent need, you can make it yourself. To do this, dilute the salt in boiled water, observing a proportion of 9: 1000. Thus, per 1 liter of water will require 9 g of salt. The liquid must be boiled, allowed to cool to room temperature, and then used for a day. Storage should be carried out in a refrigerator, in a closed container.

How to carry out inhalation with sodium chloride?

Classic saline-based steam treatments make no sense. In the process of heating and converting a liquid to vapor, sodium chloride turns into a precipitate. Consequently, the most ordinary distilled water will get on the mucous membranes while inhaling, the result of the procedure will consist only in a simple moisturizing, without a therapeutic effect. In order to carry out therapy with inhalation with saline, it is necessary to use special nebulizers that convert the liquid substance into an aerosol format. Thus, the inhalation will be better called a shower.

• Any nebulizer format is suitable for carrying out the procedure: both compressor and ultrasonic.
• The drug that is mixed with saline must be selected by a specialist, and he also explains the correct dosage. It is possible to use drugs from the group of antispasmodics (mainly bronchodilators), mucolytics, as well as antibacterial drugs for the general disinfection of the respiratory tract.

A detailed instruction on the inhalation of a nebulizer with saline sodium chloride and the selected drug should also be provided by the doctor, but the general principles for almost any medication are unchanged.

• The procedure requires no more than 4 ml of saline, the sterility of which should not be in doubt. To this end, in the bottle (if the product is a pharmacy), a needle is punctured through the rubber, the right amount of liquid is collected and added to a container with the drug, where the substances are mixed and then poured into a nebulizer.
• The proportions depend on what kind of drug is used, and also for what purpose. In particular, Bromhexine and Ambroxol are diluted with saline in equal proportions to children; Acetylcysteine ​​granules are combined with sodium chloride as 1 g to 5 ml.

• The frequency of the procedure is determined by the disease and the specific medication. Doctors call the optimal schedule 2-3 times a day. The duration of each inhalation is about 5 minutes.
• If you need to do several procedures with different drugs, you first need to use bronchodilators, i.e. remove the spasm, and then stimulate the dilution and sputum separation (take mucolytics), and only after this is inhaled with antibiotics. The use of the latter in the first place does not make any sense, since with further actions they will simply be eliminated with outgoing mucus.
• Doctors remind that it is forbidden to carry out inhalations after a high physical activity, at elevated temperature and blood pressure, as well as immediately after a meal.

Despite the fact that inhalations with saline there are no contraindications, the procedure may have certain limitations, given the specific drug, and also entail adverse reactions due to idiosyncrasy or impaired fluid production technology.