drugsTreatmentEstablished

Diazoxide

aka Diazoxide oral suspension

Diazoxide is a medicine that stops insulin-producing tumours releasing insulin. It is used to control dangerous low blood sugar from an insulinoma while the patient is prepared for surgery or when the tumour cannot be removed.

Diazoxide is a non-diuretic benzothiadiazine that inhibits insulin secretion by opening potassium channels in beta cells; it is licensed as an oral suspension for hypoglycaemia due to hyperinsulinism, including insulinoma and islet cell hyperplasia. Taken two or three times daily, it raises blood glucose within hours and is the first-line medical treatment for insulinoma symptoms before surgery or when surgery is not possible.

Fluid retention, hirsutism and nausea limit its use, and a thiazide diuretic is often added. Everolimus is the alternative when diazoxide fails, because mTOR inhibition also suppresses insulin release in malignant insulinoma. The pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour page names it for controlling hypoglycaemia before insulinoma surgery.

See it in action

Opens ATP-sensitive potassium channels in pancreatic beta cells and insulinoma cells, preventing the depolarisation that triggers insulin release, so blood glucose rises.

1. What happens next: the hormonal schematic

How hormonal therapy works, step by step · animated schematic, not to scale; chosen from the modality "Oral potassium-channel opener that suppresses insulin hormone release"

Hormonal Therapy →

2. Step by step

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1.Diazoxide acts on its target, the hormone receptor or the enzyme that makes the hormone.

Modality

Oral potassium-channel opener that suppresses insulin hormone release

Mechanism

Opens ATP-sensitive potassium channels in pancreatic beta cells and insulinoma cells, preventing the depolarisation that triggers insulin release, so blood glucose rises.

Brand / code

Proglycem

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Diazoxide

intervention: Diazoxide

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