Surviving the Anesthesia Drug Shortages
Key injectable opioids and local anesthetics are nowhere to be found.
I
n operating rooms across the country, anesthesia providers are
dealing with an unprecedented shortage of many of the injectable
opioids and local anesthetics they rely on to manage patients'
pain during and after surgery. It's an opioid crisis that's every bit as
serious as the abuse of prescription painkillers plaguing the nation.
We have dealt with drug shortages before, but we've never seen such
a prolonged and widespread shortage like the one that we are current-
ly experiencing. The top 5 drugs in shortest supply are injectable for-
mulations of hydromorphone, fentanyl and morphine, as well as bupi-
vacaine and epinephrine, according to an American Society of
1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 8
Anesthesia Alert
James D. Grant, MD, MBA, FASA
• IN SHORT SUPPLY From fentanyl to glycopyrrolate (pictured), anesthesiologists are having trouble accessing many of the
drugs they frequently administer.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN,
CNOR
