Cisplatin is a chemotherapy medication used to treat several types of cancer. In this video, I will teach you a simple visual mnemonic to help you remember all the important information about cisplatin. Let's get started. For today's video, we're at a fancy restaurant where a couple is finishing up their meal. The man is trying to pay for the meal using his shiny platinum credit card.
This platinum credit card is our symbol for the drug cisplatin. Cisplatin actually contains platinum and is often called cisplatin. It's the cisplatin credit card.
As a side note, there's actually other platinum-based chemotherapy drugs like carboplatin and oxaliplatin. Those drugs aren't very important for the NCLEX, but if you want, you can remember the platin ending of all of them by picturing this platinum card. Let's move on to talk about when cisplatin is used in the clinical setting.
At this high-end restaurant, the woman ordered a big plate of crab. It looks like she hardly touched her food, but we'll get to that in a minute. Instead, focus on this crab. Here at Pixerize, we use a crab to symbolize cancer. Like the zodiac sign for cancer is a crab.
And cancer got its name due to the crab-like irregular appearance of tumors under the skin. This crab is here to remind you that cisplatin treats cancer. In other words, it is a chemotherapy drug.
The list of cancers that cisplatin can be used to treat is actually really long, and includes ovarian cancer, bladder cancer, and testicular cancer, to name a few. Cisplatin works to treat cancer by killing rapidly dividing cells. And, as you probably know, cancer is caused by a bunch of cells undergoing rapid divisions.
So, cisplatin kills cancer cells, but it can also damage other fast-dividing cells in the body to cause some side effects. Let's talk about those next. After just a few bites, that crab is not sitting well in the woman's stomach.
The way this woman is vomiting up the crab can remind you of a common side effect of cisplatin, GI upset. Like most chemotherapy agents, cisplatin causes gastrointestinal disturbances like nausea and vomiting. You see, our GI tract is also lined by rapidly dividing cells, so damage to these cells can cause GI problems manifesting in nausea and vomiting. Patients taking these drugs will usually get an anti-emetic to try to minimize some of these side effects.
Next, the credit card reader is not registering the man's platinum card and he is getting really frustrated. First, his date is sick and now this. In his anger, the man swiped his arm across the table, causing his plate of empty hollow bones to fall to the floor.
These falling hollow bones are a symbol for bone marrow suppression. Because with bone marrow suppression, the bone marrow function falls. just like these falling bones. Bone marrow is the hub for making blood.
Rapidly dividing cells living in the bone marrow pump out red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. As a place with rapidly dividing cells, the bone marrow can be damaged by cisplatin and most chemotherapies in general. This in turn leads to a fall in red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets, causing anemia, infections, and bleeding.
Now that we've covered the general side effects seen with most chemotherapies, Let's focus on some findings more specific to cisplatin. The bones weren't the only thing on the man's plate. He also had a few leftover kidney beans that are now tumbling to the floor. Kidney beans are a symbol for kidneys. That should be pretty straightforward.
And the way the kidney beans are falling to the floor can remind you that cisplatin causes kidney damage or reduced kidney function. As the nurse, you're going to want to monitor the patient's BUN, creatine, and urine output. It's also important to encourage the patient to stay hydrated because that can help minimize the amount of kidney damage. I think I've found the cause for the malfunctioning card reader.
It's that frayed, sparking wire there. That reminds me. We use a frayed, sparking wire as our symbol for neuropathy because nerves are kind of like wires, right? So frayed wires can remind you of damaged nerves.
Get it? Cisplatin can cause peripheral neuropathy, which often manifests as tingling in the extremities. Just remember this frayed wire to remember peripheral neuropathy. That malfunctioning card reader is emitting a loud, annoying beeping sound. No wonder the man is getting so frustrated.
And that's also what's causing his date to cover her ears with her hands. This should help you remember another adverse effect specific to cisplatin, ototoxicity, or ear damage. Covering the ears for ear damage.
Make sense? That covers the most important facts about cisplatin. Let's summarize what we've learned here.
Cisplatin is a chemotherapy drug used to treat a wide variety of cancers. Side effects of cisplatin include general chemotherapy side effects like GI upset and bone marrow suppression. Side effects more specific to cisplatin include kidney damage, peripheral neuropathy, and ototoxicity.
Well, I'm glad I'm not the one on this date. Neither one of these guys look like they're having a very good time. Yep, I think they should have just stayed in to watch Pixarize videos.
See you in the next one. For more videos like this one, subscribe to our channel and check out our newest lessons. For more resources on this topic, including fact lists and interactive review images, click the image next to the More Here arrow. I'll see you next time.