epitome alpha is a medication used to increase hemoglobin levels to treat people with anemia in this visual mnemonic video i will teach you an easy way to remember everything a nurse needs to know about eaton alpha so you'll be ready for the nclex let's get started in today's scene we find ourselves at the local bar in the morning the owner just finished polishing his bar's countertop with this epoxy finish see how shiny and glossy it is by the way the epoxy here is our symbol for the drug epoetin alpha get it epoxy for epoetin epoetin is basically a synthetic version of the hormone erythropoietin that is naturally produced by your kidneys erythropoietin plays an important role in stimulating our bodies to make more red blood cells so the drug epoetan does the same thing and why might that be useful well let's find out it was smart of the bar owner to put the epoxy on before the bar opened now that we're getting closer to opening time the owner is prepping some bloody marys for the morning crowd when you think of the owner making a bloody mary remember that epowetin helps make red blood cells see what i did there since making these blood red bloody mary drinks reminds me of making red blood right epowetin is given to patients to treat anemia or patients with low hemoglobin levels the goal of epo eaton treatment is to increase the patient's hemoglobin levels by increasing the production of red blood now this is good and all but there's one important side effect of taking this drug to know so let's get to that next to make the bloody marys the bar owner needs to dump in the red tomato sauce out of this bottle unfortunately he has run into a bit of trouble because the tomato sauce has clumped up near the opening to clog the bottle coincidentally this reminds me of how epoetin can cause blood to form clots in our vessels a clotted bottle of red liquid for blood clots get it the formation of blood clots induced by epoetin can be dangerous because blood clots can block blood supply to organs downstream causing ischemia and tissue death clinically this manifests as deep vein thrombosis pulmonary embolisms in the lung heart attacks and strokes in the brain it's important to report to the provider any signs or symptoms of these conditions like shortness of breath chest pain or altered mental status based on this side effect it should also make sense why epoetin is contraindicated in patients who are already at high risk for developing blood clots for example in patients with a history of heart attack or stroke as well as people with severe hypertension so how do we prevent this side effect from happening well notice how the bar owner is attempting to unclog the bottle with a pair of chopsticks the way he is holding the chopsticks in two lines reminds me of the number 11. do you see it since the pair of chopsticks kind of looks like the two ones in 11 right notice that the bloody mary is below the chopsticks and remember that the bloody mary was our symbol for the hemoglobin found in red blood the bloody mary below the chopsticks can remind you that the hemoglobin levels should stay below 11. above this level of hemoglobin the blood gets too thick and greatly increases the risk for blood clots that we just mentioned make sure to keep a close eye on the patient's hemoglobin levels and you should be set for test day it looks like the bar is opening here soon so let's quickly summarize and get on our way epoetin alpha or just epoetin for short is a drug that is basically a synthetic form of the naturally occurring hormone erythropoietin epoetin is given to patients with anemia to stimulate the production of red blood cells and to increase hemoglobin levels by increasing the number of red blood cells epowedin increases the thickness or viscosity of blood which explains its main side effect an increased chance of developing blood clots as such the drug is contraindicated in patients with a high risk or history of blood clots to prevent blood clots from occurring the hemoglobin should be closely monitored and should not rise above 11 grams per deciliter and that's everything now you're a master of all things epo eaton if you're feeling really confident about the nclex after watching pixarize videos tell your friends about us over your morning cocktails see you in the next one thanks for watching 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