pentoxifylline
Meaning of pentoxifylline: Pentoxifylline is an oral medication that improves blood flow through narrowed vessels, used mainly to ease leg pain caused by poor circulation during walking.
Definition of pentoxifylline
Pentoxifylline is a medication used to improve blood flow, most often prescribed for intermittent claudication, the leg pain or cramping that occurs during walking or exercise because narrowed arteries cannot supply enough blood to the leg muscles.
The drug works by making red blood cells more flexible and reducing the thickness, or viscosity, of the blood, which allows blood to pass more easily through narrowed or partially blocked small vessels. It is taken by mouth, typically several times a day with meals.
Because pentoxifylline improves circulation rather than removing the underlying blockage in an artery, it is generally used to reduce symptoms of poor circulation rather than to treat the arterial disease causing the narrowing, and its benefit for walking distance varies from person to person.
Used in a sentence
Pentoxifylline was prescribed to help reduce the patient's leg pain during walking.
Good to know
Pentoxifylline improves blood flow by changing the properties of blood cells rather than by widening blood vessels directly, distinguishing its mechanism from that of drugs acting on the vessel wall itself.