Salbutamol - Ventolin

Quick relief of asthma symptoms, exercise-induced bronchospasm, and acute breathlessness in COPD. Used ‘as needed’ rather than regularly.

Salbutamol is a short-acting beta-2 agonist (SABA). It relaxes the smooth muscle in your airways, opening them up within 5 minutes. Effects last 4-6 hours. It treats the symptom (bronchoconstriction) but not the underlying inflammation.

Anyone with asthma, exercise-induced bronchospasm, or COPD. Use with a spacer for better drug delivery. Safe in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Caution if you have an overactive thyroid or certain heart conditions.

Order online and we review your request. A prescriber checks your consultation form for clinical appropriateness and contacts you if anything else is needed. Once approved, your medication is dispensed and delivered to your door.

Tracked: Tracked delivery, arrives tomorrow - Free

When it arrives: Every order is sent tracked. Where this page says in post today, it goes out today. Where it says in post tomorrow, it goes out the next working day. On the rare occasions a medicine is unavailable, we will contact you to talk about timing and alternatives.

We dispense clinically equivalent generic medications where available. Prices shown are for the generic version. If you prefer the branded version, let us know in your order form and we will confirm any price difference.

Salbutamol Inhaler from £30.99 per inhaler.

SABA (salbutamol): tremor, headache, palpitations, muscle cramps. ICS (beclometasone, fluticasone, budesonide): oral thrush (candidiasis), hoarseness - rinse mouth after each use. LABA (formoterol, salmeterol): tremor, palpitations, headache. High-dose ICS: bruising, adrenal suppression.

LABA: must not be used without an ICS in asthma (monotherapy increases risk of asthma death). Tiotropium: hypersensitivity to atropine derivatives.

Beta-blockers: may reduce effectiveness of salbutamol and other beta-agonists - avoid non-selective beta-blockers in asthma. Potassium-depleting diuretics: increased risk of hypokalaemia with high-dose beta-agonists.

Salbutamol and ICS: can be used in pregnancy - uncontrolled asthma is more dangerous than the medications. Do not stop preventer inhalers during pregnancy. Compatible with breastfeeding.

Important

• Your reliever (salbutamol, Ventolin) eases symptoms quickly but does nothing for the inflammation that causes asthma. If you only use a reliever, that inflammation goes untreated and you are at real risk of a severe attack. Asthma kills more than 1,000 people a year in the UK, and the national review of asthma deaths found that many of them had been using a lot of reliever without enough preventer treatment.

• UK guidance now says no one with asthma should be treated with a reliever alone. Everyone should also have an inhaled steroid, either as a separate preventer or in a combination inhaler. This guidance changed fairly recently, so it may differ from what you were told years ago, when a blue inhaler on its own was common.

• If you are not on a steroid inhaler, see your GP or another doctor to have your asthma reviewed. Do the same if you use more than one reliever inhaler a month, need it three or more times a week, or wake at night with a cough or wheeze.

• If you are ever breathless at rest, or your reliever is not working, call 999.

If you have asthma, please arrange a review with your GP or asthma nurse:

• 8 to 12 weeks after starting or changing treatment

• at least once a year

• after an asthma attack

The review should check your symptoms, how often you use your reliever, any side effects and your treatment plan. If this medicine is for another condition, ask your usual clinician when your review is due.

Shake the inhaler well before each use, and use a spacer if you can: it doubles the amount reaching your lungs.

Please let your registered GP know about any medicine you have been prescribed, so they have the full picture of your health.