Norepinephrine Shortage Is Associated with Higher Mortality

During the past decade, drug shortages caused by production interruptions have increasingly affected U.S. hospitals. In 2011, a national shortage of norepinephrine occurred. To assess the potential effect on patients with septic shock, investigators examined a large administrative database that contained data from before (2008–2010), during (2011), and after (2012–2013) the shortage.

More than 168,000 patients with septic shock were included in the analysis. “Shortage hospitals,” defined as those with at least a 20% decrease in norepinephrine use during 2011 (and a return to preshortage use in 2012), were compared with nonshortage hospitals. In a multivariate analysis, in-hospital mortality in shortage hospitals declined overall during the 5…