Sol-nitro

Sol-nitro was a widely available analgesic medication that was effective in the symptomatic control of Kangly's syndrome, a chronic, incurable, fatal disease marked by recurrent pain crises. In humans affected by the rare condition, sol-nitro infusions via med-spike could provide rapid-onset relief of pain crises, while also reducing their frequency. Administration of the drug was often into the deltoid region and was accompanied by a cold sensation.

Sol-nitro's pharmacokinetic profile was marked by rapid onset of action but a longer half-life. These properties made its long-term efficacy in treating Kangly's syndrome challenging. Despite its efficacy in the early stages of the disease, patients built up a tolerance to sol-nitro, such that ever-increasing doses were needed to achieve the same level of pain control. Additionally, with the increasing frequency and severity of pain crises in late-stage Kangly's syndrome, higher doses of sol-nitro were needed. The combination of tolerance to the drug, its half-life, and worsening disease severity leading to increased dosing heightened the risk of adverse effects, especially beyond the safety margin of dosage.

The adverse effects of sol-nitro included frontal headache secondary to dehydration. The degree of dehydration was dose-dependent and could be offset by oral intake of water. At high doses of sol-nitro, proportional injection site pain became common, which could linger for days. At high internal concentrations, additional dosing of sol-nitro could be fatal.

Aside from Kangly's syndrome, sol-nitro was used in various other medical conditions, making it easy to access on Core World planets such as Coruscant.

By 19 BBY, Colonel Halland Goth, Commander of the Emperor's Royal Guard, developed Kangly's syndrome. Using his heavily modified TC-series protocol droid TC-99, Goth self-treated his condition with sol-nitro. As his condition worsened, he fell into the typical clinical picture of drug tolerance and increasing doses leading to diminishing returns. This caused him to run out of sol-nitro doses faster than expected.

Text and facts from the “Sol-nitro” article on Wookieepedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Modified for this site.