These small bowel lesions have caused obstruction, hemorrhage and perforation. Surgery was frequently required and deaths have occurred. Available information tends to implicate enteric coated potassium salts, although lesions of this type also occur spontaneously. Such preparations should be used only when adequate dietary supplementation is not practical, and should be discontinued immediately if abdominal pain, distension, nausea, vomiting or gastrointestinal bleeding occur. There is some evidence that side effects such as nasal congestion, lethargy, depressed Moro reflex, and bradycardia may appear in infants born of reserpine-treated mothers.
Thiazides cross the placental barrier and appear in cord blood.
When Hydropres is used in pregnancy or in women of child-bearing age, the potential benefits of the drug should be weighed against the possible hazards to the fetus. These hazards include fetal or neonatal jaundice, thrombocytopenia, and possibly other adverse reactions which have occurred in the adult. Since thiazides and reserpine appear in breast milk, Hydropres is contraindicated in nursing mothers. If use of the drug is deemed essential, the patient should stop nursing. This compound may precipitate biliary colic in patients with gallstones, or bronchial asthma in susceptible persons.