PARALYTIC ILEUS AS A RESULT OF DILTIAZEM TREATMENT

Diltiazem is a widely used calcium channel blocker, and has been found to be effective in the treatment of hypertension, stable, variant and unstable angina, as well as oesophageal spasm. Calcium channel antago nists have been shown to diminish the contractility of gut smooth musc le, but have not as yet been reported to cause clinically significant inhibition of gut motility when used alone. We report a case of revers ible functional intestinal obstruction, immediately following diltiaze m treatment in a patient with ischaemic heart disease.