Furosemide Oral: Dosing and Precautions
Furosemide guidance for edema associated with renal, hepatic, or congestive heart failure, with potassium and dehydration precautions.
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Source reviewed
source date listed on the source page
Guide category
Oral drugs
Safety boundary
Prescription medicine information for clinician-guided use.
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Therapeutic action
Loop diuretic.
Indications
Oedema associated with renal, hepatic or congestive heart failure.
Forms and strengths
- 20 mg and 40 mg tablets.
Dose
- Adult: start with 20 mg once daily. Increase, if necessary, according to clinical response up to 80 mg once daily or 2 times daily, maximum 160 mg daily.
- Once oedema decreases, reduce to 20 to 40 mg once daily.
Duration
According to clinical response.
Contra-indications, adverse effects, precautions
- Do not administer to patients with dehydration, severe hypokalaemia, or hyponatraemia.
- May cause dehydration, hypotension, hypokalaemia, hyponatraemia, hyperuricaemia, renal impairment, deafness, and photosensitivity.
- Avoid or monitor combination with NSAIDs, ACE inhibitors, ototoxic drugs, and lithium.
- Monitor combination with drugs that provoke hypotension, potassium-depleting drugs, sodium-depleting drugs, oral antidiabetics, and insulin.
- Pregnancy: administer only if clearly needed.
- Breast-feeding: contraindicated because it is excreted in milk and reduces milk production.
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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