July 30, 2010


Steve:

I would like to confirm the shortage in anesthesia drugs. The hospital where I work in the Midwest has been out of Sodium Pentathol and Propofol for months. Both these drugs are used to induce general anesthesia. Propofol is also used for conscious sedation.

Propofol was the first to go. The official story is that the manufacturer, Teva, stopped making it. TEVA IS a company in Israel. I believe that the plant for making Propofol is also in Israel.
Propofol is the first choice drug for inducing general anesthesia. But when there was no more Propofol, the Anesthesiologists used Sodium Pentathol. But the hospital has been unable to procure this for several months as well. They are now using a drug called etomidate. It is an older drug that works (sort of) but it is sometimes very painful going in. I’ve seen the anesthesiologists curse and swear with this drug because it is much harder to intubate or use this drug for conscious sedation or general anesthesia safely.

Finally, there is no company that manufactures Propofol in the US.

I’ve thought to myself many times how long the supply lines are for this life-saving drug (and many others.)

There is no way to know for sure, of course, but it certainly makes sense that if Israel was expecting battle injuries, they would be stockpiling Propofol. It is a good drug for trauma situations.

CW