Internal Medicine: Journal Article

I chose this article because during my rotation I saw a lot of heart failure and pulmonary edema. All the patients were treated with Furosemide while in the hospital, and routinely discharged with Furosemide, but no other medication was considered. I was curious to see if another medication of the same drug class is just as effective as Furosemide, such as Torsemide.  In pharmacology class, we learned torsemide is better tolerated and just as effective.  According to the journal, 2859 participants were randomized with a median age of 65 years. 12 months following up after randomization, all-cause mortality or all-cause hospitalization occurred in 677 patients that were in the torsemide group (47.3%) and 704 patients in the furosemide group (49.3%). There were 940 hospitalizations in total, and among 536 participants in the torsemide group, and 987 hospitalizations among 577 participants in the furosemide group. Results were similar across both groups including patients with reduced, mildly reduced, or preserved ejection fractions. In conclusion, patients who were discharged from the hospital with heart failure torsemide compared to furosemide did not result in a significant difference in all-cause mortality over 12 months.