People's Pharmacy

Trental

Generic Name:pentoxifylline

Revised:4/1/2000

Table of Contents

Overview

This medicine makes blood flow more easily through blood capillaries.

It improves red blood cell flexibility so these oxygen-carrying cells can squeeze through small vessels or those that are almost blocked.

Trental is used to treat a leg condition called intermittent claudication, which causes pain upon walking.

Although the FDA has not approved Trental for any other use, doctors sometimes prescribe this medicine for complications of diabetes, sickle cell anemia, Raynaud's syndrome, hearing problems, mountain sickness, stroke and other conditions where blood flow to the brain is compromised.