The patient information that comes with each inhaler tells you how to clean and prime your inhaler. Why is cleaning and priming my albuterol HFA inhaler important? Cleaning the inhaler to prevent clogging and properly priming the albuterol HFA inhaler are very important to make sure that the medicine sprays from the inhaler so you can breathe it into your lungs. Each albuterol HFA inhaler comes with directions for washing, drying the mouthpiece part that goes in your mouth and priming.
There are some differences between brands of inhalers, so you will need to follow the directions that come with each inhaler. First, remember that the force of the spray from the albuterol HFA may feel different. Make sure you wash, dry, and prime the inhaler as described in the directions that come in each package. If you have problems using your albuterol HFA inhaler, talk to your healthcare professional as a different product may be right for you.
If the spray feels different, how will I know if my HFA inhaler is working in the right way? It is important to remember that it is the deep breath that you take with each puff that gets the medication into your lungs, not the force of the spray. The spray from an albuterol HFA inhaler may feel softer than the spray from an albuterol CFC inhaler but this will not affect the amount of drug that you breathe into your lungs. The spray from an albuterol CFC inhaler often hits the back of the mouth.
Inhalation aerosols, usually called Metered Dose Inhalers MDIs , provide an effective, easy-to-use method of delivering medication in an atomised form. These products require the use of a propellant to deliver the dose and there are two approved propellants in use today, both belonging to the class of hydrofluoroalkanes HFAs.
These are HFA a 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane and HFA ea 1,1,1,2,3,3,3-heptafluoroethane , both of which have been in use since passing extensive toxicology studies in the s. HFA a is currently the most widely used but in this article I wanted to focus on its specialist cousin HFA ea — a product which we believe will significantly grow in use in the near future. The difference between approximately 1. In use, medical HFAs need to deliver a complicated balance of properties.
Most MDI formulations consist of an insoluble finely ground drug, suspended in liquefied, pressurised HFA propellant, possibly with other ingredients such as small amounts of alcohol added as well. The key goal for the formulation chemist in developing these medications is to produce something which, when emitted from the aerosol can as a dose, will contain the right amount of the drug in a highly dispersed form so that it can be inhaled, throughout the entire shelf life of the product — commonly a period of two years and sometimes longer.
It is in addressing these three requirements that the need for the specialist properties of ea arises. If the drug crystal sinks rapidly then it is harder to get a reliable dose, a problem which is further complicated by a tendency for crystals to stick together.
In some cases, the polarity of HFA a can make the recrystallisation problem worse as indeed can the higher level of moisture affinity. This also has a very serious impact on chemical stability, as uptake of moisture is one of the most common reasons for decomposition of drugs on storage in these aerosols. It is always important for patients to follow the inhaler instructions included with their medication. Some HFA inhalers have an inhaler counter which allows the patient to keep track of how much medication they have left and some are alcohol inhalers and contain a small amount of alcohol that can temporarily cause a false reading on breath alcohol tests.
There is also a significant difference in the cost of the inhalers. There are programs available to that provide assistance to patients, allowing them to buy the inhalers at little or no cost.
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