Hematemesis After Reserpine for Raynaud's Phenomenon

Excerpt

To the editor: The efficacy of intra-arterial reserpine in the treatment of patients with Raynaud's phenomenon has been shown (1-3). The reported side effects related to this treatment were usually mild; the expected systemic features, such as hypotension, bradycardia, and nasal stiffness, were rarely encountered.

We recently treated 12 patients who had scleroderma and Raynaud's phenomenon with an injection of 1 mg of reserpine into a brachial artery. Side effects included transient hypotension (2 cases), mild depression (1 case), and an episode of hematemesis within 2 hours of the intra-arterial injection (2 cases). Hematemesis after intra-arterial reserpine has not been