Another serious national shortage affects patients with sepsis, a systemic reaction to infection that can result in shock. This life-threatening drop in blood pressure is treated with injections of norepinephrine, and that compound is now in very short supply. There are no easy substitutions for norepinephrine.
The scarcity appears to have been brought on by manufacturers stopping production. Anesthesiologists who also norepinephrine during surgery are dismayed that the FDA has not done enough to help prevent such shortages.
