Mannitol: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Mannitol is an osmotic diuretic sold in the U.S. under 8 brand and generic names, for anuria, brain edema and ocular hypertension. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Osmotic Diuretic
- Treats (across its forms)
- Anuria, Brain Edema and Ocular Hypertension
- Available as
- Kit · Powder · Injectable · Solution
- Sold as
- 8 products — Aridol, Aridol Kit and Bronchitol, and others
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
- Boxed warning
- Boxed warning
How Aridol is dosed
From the FDA label for Aridol (application NDA022368). Other mannitol products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
For Oral Inhalation Use Only One ARIDOL test kit contains dry powder mannitol capsules in graduated doses and a single patient use inhaler necessary to perform one bronchial challenge test. ( 2 ) The mannitol capsules supplied in the ARIDOL kit are to be used with the single patient use inhaler device ( 2 ). Discard the inhaler after use. Capsule contents are to be inhaled in increasing dosage until either a positive response (15% reduction in FEV 1 from baseline or a 10% incremental reduction in FEV 1 between consecutive doses) is achieved or all capsules are inhaled (maximum total dose 635mg) ( 2 ) Starting and maximum dose is the same for children (≥6 years old) and adults ( 2 ) 2.1 Bronchial Challenge Test Kit Overview ARIDOL is a bronchial challenge test kit containing the required capsules of dry powder mannitol for oral inhalation in graduated doses with the supplied single patient use inhaler necessary to perform one bronchial challenge test. Do not swallow ARIDOL capsules. The airway response to bronchial challenge testing with ARIDOL is measured using forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV 1 ). Prior to bronchial challenge testing with ARIDOL, standard spirometry should be performed and the reproducibility of the resting FEV 1 established. 2.2 Administration Instructions An overview of the testing procedure can be found below. The ARIDOL bronchial challenge test…
Everything below is the FDA label for Aridol (kit). Mannitol is also sold as powder, injectable and solution, and those are different medicines to take — follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Aridol side effects
The following clinically significant adverse reaction is described elsewhere in the labeling: • Severe Bronchospasm [ see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.1 )]. Most common adverse reactions (rate ≥1%) were headache, pharyngolaryngeal pain, throat irritation, nausea, cough, rhinorrhea, dyspnea, chest discomfort, wheezing, retching and dizziness. ( 6.1 ) To report SUSPECTED ADVERSE REACTIONS, contact Methapharm, Inc. at 1-866-701-4636 or email at [email protected] or FDA at 1-800-FDA-1088 or www.fda.gov/medwatch 6.1 Clinical Trials Experience Because clinical trials are conducted under widely varying conditions, adverse reaction rates observed in the clinical trials of a drug cannot be directly compared to rates in the clinical trials of another drug and may not reflect the rates observed in practice. The safety population for the ARIDOL bronchial challenge test consisted of 1,082 subjects (577 females and 505 males) including patients with asthma, symptoms suggestive of asthma, and healthy individuals from 6 to 83 years of age who participated in the two clinical trials (Studies 1 and 2). The racial distribution of subjects was 84% Caucasian, 5% Asian, 4% Black, and 7% Other. Pediatric and adolescents patients comprised 23% of the total study population with 118 pediatric patients aged 6-11 years and 128 adolescents aged 12-17 years. Adverse reactions were reported at the…
Who shouldn’t take Aridol
ARIDOL is contraindicated in: Patients with known hypersensitivity to mannitol or to the gelatin used to make the capsules Patients with conditions that may be compromised by induced bronchospasm or repeated spirometry maneuvers. Some examples include: aortic or cerebral aneurysm, uncontrolled hypertension, recent myocardial infarction or cerebral vascular accident [ see Warnings and Precautions ( 5.2 )]. Known hypersensitivity to mannitol or to the gelatin used to make the capsules ( 4 ) Conditions that may be compromised by induced bronchospasm or repeated spirometry maneuvers ( 4 )
Aridol drug interactions
No formal drug-drug interaction studies were conducted with mannitol, the active ingredient in ARIDOL.
Every mannitol product we track (8)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
| # | Drug | Rating | Type | Form | Generic? | Pharmacy pays | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Kit | No data | — | View → | |
| 2 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Kit | No data | — | View → | |
| 3 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Powder | No data | — | View → | |
| 4 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Injectable | No data | — | View → | |
| 5 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Injectable | No data | — | View → | |
| 6 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Injectable | No data | — | View → | |
| 7 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Injectable | No data | — | View → | |
| 8 | Not yet rated | Prescription | Solution | No data | — | View → |
What people report to the FDA about mannitol
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 6,198 reports naming mannitol, and the FDA flagged 91% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:
- renal failure622 reports
- anxiety514 reports
- injury496 reports
- renal impairment483 reports
- stress452 reports
- fear431 reports
- renal injury395 reports
- emotional distress389 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean mannitol caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is Aridol?
Aridol (Mannitol) is an osmotic diuretic used to treat Anuria, Brain Edema, Ocular Hypertension, Oliguria.
What kind of drug is mannitol?
The FDA classifies mannitol as an osmotic diuretic. Osmotic diuretics like mannitol are sugar-like molecules that the kidney filters but cannot reabsorb, so they stay in the urine and pull water along with them like a magnet. This boosts urine output and can also draw excess fluid out of swollen tissues, such as a swollen brain. If you are checking whether it is safe to combine with something else, the class is what matters — two drugs from the same class usually should not be stacked.
Can you take mannitol with other medicines?
It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run mannitol against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What brand names is mannitol sold under?
We track 8 mannitol-containing products in the U.S.: Aridol, Aridol Kit, Bronchitol, Mannitol 10% in Plastic Container, Mannitol 15% in Plastic Container, Mannitol 20% in Plastic Container, Mannitol 5% in Plastic Container and Resectisol. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.
What forms does mannitol come in?
Across the brands we track, mannitol is currently marketed as kit, powder, injectable and solution, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.
Is there a generic mannitol?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled mannitol product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Mannitol: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/mannitol
- MLA
- “Mannitol: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/mannitol.
We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.
Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.
Read the full FDA label for mannitol on DailyMed (NIH) ↗ — including its boxed warning in full.