Frusemide in heart failure of infancy.

Twelve infants with heart failure and one with perinatal oedema were treated with intramuscular frusemide (1·0-1·25 mg/kg). Frusemide was found to be a safe effective diuretic in infants with heart failure, resulting in clinical improvement, marked excretion of water, sodium, and chloride, with a lesser and more variable effect on potassium excretion. Complications were uncommon with this dose. The drug is most effective in acute pulmonary oedema or acute worsening of heart failure, but day-to-day control of persistent heart failure is more easily obtained by using repeated doses of oral or intramuscular frusemide plus, if needed, aldactone A or triamterene.