Common Medications & Their Associated Conditions

Below we have made a list that will help you early on in your clinical rotations. When you see a pre-op medications list early on it can be very overwhelming and, at times, unhelpful because they can be long, illegible, and many of the drug you will not learn about until the spring. With this table you should be able to look at a patient's medication list and get a good idea of what conditions your patient has (this is assuming, of course, you have a good patient who is taking their meds). I have organized these meds based on the frequency in which they are seen and how much they can impact anesthesia. If you have an in-patient many of the meds will be different. Meds on the same line are similar (either by mechanism, targets, etc.) Patterns in the suffices helps a lot, such as all drugs ending in -pril are ACE inhibitors for hypertension and those ending in -statin are for high cholesterol. Brand names are in parentheses and if a drug is better known by its generic or brand name I only included the one it is best known as.

This list by no means covers everything that you will see in clinicals, but it is a good place to start. 

The epocrates app is your best friend when trying to learn these drugs. Many instructors use this app regularly. Even if you can't make out the full name, type out what you can read and many times it will narrow the search enough for you to figure out which drug you're looking for. After finding the drug in question, look at the pharmacology tab. Here you will find the mechanism of action which should give you insight into that the drug is used for. If that doesn't help, try Google.

Best of luck!

Hypertension

Metoprolol, Atenolol, Propranolol, Carvedilol(Coreg)       

Hydrochlorothiazide(HCTZ)

Clonidine                            

Lisinopril, Enalapril, 

Losartan(Cozaar)                        

Verapamil, Diltiazem

Nifedipine, Nicardipine, Amlodipine(Norvasc)

Diabetes

Insulin
Glyburide
Metformin

GERD

Ranitidine(Zantac), Famotidine(Pepcid)

Omeprazole(Prilosec), Pantoprazole(Protonix), Nexium

Alka-seltzer, Mylanta, Rolaids, Maalox, Tums

Pain

Codeine, Hydrocodone(Lortab), Oxycodone, OxyContin, Tramadol
Nalbuphine(Nubain), Buprenorphine

Aspirin(ASA), Ibuprofen(Motrin, Advil)

Acetominophen(Tylenol)

Hypothyroidism

Levothyroxine(Synthroid)

Asthma

Albuterol

Advair, Azmacort, Flovent, Pulmicort

Coagulopathies

Enoxaparin(Lovenox)

Warfarin(Coumadin)

Clopidogrel(Plavix)

Pradaxa

Psychiatric Drugs

Anti-depressants: Prozac, Zoloft, Lexapro

Anti-sseizure: Phenytoin(Dilantin), Keppra, Gabapentin

Parkinson's: Levodopa, Cogentin

Allergies

Diphenhydramine(Benadryl), Dimetapp, Claritin, Allegra

Hyperlipidemia

Simvastatin, Pravastatin

Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor