Aspirin Oral: Uses, Dosing, and Precautions
Aspirin guidance for limited pain and fever use in older patients and for prevention of severe pre-eclampsia, with major bleeding precautions.
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Source reviewed
April 2024
Guide category
Oral drugs
Safety boundary
Prescription medicine information for clinician-guided use.
Kenza Health Hub presents this medicine page as structured health education. Check dose, route, interactions, pregnancy or breast-feeding considerations, and local protocol with a qualified clinician or pharmacist. Read our medical editorial policy.
Therapeutic action
- Analgesic, antipyretic, non steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID).
- Platelet antiaggregant at low dose.
Indications
Due to their better safety profile, prefer paracetamol or ibuprofen for pain and fever management.
- Mild pain, fever.
- Secondary prevention of severe pre-eclampsia.
Forms and strengths
- 300 mg tablet.
- 75 mg enteric coated tablet.
Dose and duration
Pain and fever
- Adolescent over 16 years and adult: 300 mg to 1 g every 4 to 6 hours, maximum 4 g daily, for 1 to 3 days.
Prevention of pre-eclampsia
- 75 to 150 mg once daily from the 12th to the 36th week of gestation.
- Stop treatment 5 to 10 days before the expected date of delivery.
Contra-indications, adverse effects, precautions
- Do not administer to patients with allergy to aspirin and NSAID, gastroduodenal ulcer, coagulation disorders, haemorrhage, or severe renal, hepatic, or cardiac impairment.
- Do not administer to children for pain or fever; use paracetamol instead.
- Administer with caution to older patients or patients with asthma.
- May cause allergic reactions, epigastric pain, gastroduodenal ulcer, and haemorrhage.
- May cause dizziness and tinnitus as early signs of overdose.
- May cause Reye's syndrome in children with encephalopathy and severe hepatic disorders.
- For all cases above, stop aspirin.
- Do not combine with methotrexate, anticoagulants, or NSAID.
- Monitor combination with insulin and corticosteroids.
- Pregnancy: for pain and fever, avoid; it is contraindicated from the beginning of the 6th month. Use paracetamol. For prevention of pre-eclampsia, do not exceed 150 mg daily.
- Breast-feeding: avoid. Use paracetamol.
Source
MSF Essential drugs practical guidelines (January 2026)
This page combines source-derived medicine reference sections with Kenza editorial context, while leaving out the Storage and Remarks sections from the source batch.
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