Desflurane
Desflurane is an inhaled general anesthetic used to start and maintain anesthesia during surgery in adults, and to maintain anesthesia in intubated infants and children.
🧬 Where this information comes from Click to expand
The clinical label records used on this page are FDA-filed Structured Product Labeling (SPL) retrieved through openFDA. We identified 7 clinical label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, strengths, and NDC product-record counts are built separately from matching FDA National Drug Code Directory records. The linked DailyMed document is a representative official source for verification, not the page’s only clinical source. View the linked label on DailyMed →
📖 Desflurane: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Desflurane — what it treats, how it works, how it’s taken, side effects, warnings and interactions. Tap any section to expand it.
🎯What it's used for▾
Desflurane is an inhaled general anesthetic supported by two products: Suprane and Desflurane USP (liquid for inhalation). Together they are approved for the following uses:
- Induction of anesthesia in adults: Both Suprane and Desflurane USP are approved to start (induce) general anesthesia in adults for inpatient and outpatient surgery.
- Maintenance of anesthesia in adults: Both Suprane and Desflurane USP are approved to keep general anesthesia going throughout inpatient and outpatient surgery in adults.
- Maintenance of anesthesia in intubated infants and children: Both Suprane and Desflurane USP are approved to maintain anesthesia in infants and children — but only after anesthesia has been started with a different agent and a breathing tube (tracheal intubation) is in place.
- Not approved for induction in children: Neither Suprane nor Desflurane USP may be used to start anesthesia in pediatric patients due to a high rate of serious upper airway reactions.
- Not approved for non-intubated children: Neither product is approved to maintain anesthesia in children who are not intubated, due to increased risk of coughing, laryngospasm, and secretions.
⚙️How it works▾
Desflurane is a volatile liquid anesthetic — it evaporates into a gas that is inhaled through specialized equipment. Once breathed in, the gas crosses from the lungs into the bloodstream almost immediately and acts on the brain to produce unconsciousness, muscle relaxation, and loss of sensation (anesthesia). Because the depth of anesthesia tracks very closely with the concentration being inhaled, the anesthesia team can fine-tune the level of unconsciousness in real time by adjusting what the patient breathes in.
Desflurane is barely broken down by the body — the liver converts less than 0.02% of the absorbed dose into metabolites. Almost all of it is simply exhaled back out, which is why patients typically begin waking up relatively quickly once the gas is turned off.
💊How it's taken▾
Desflurane is given only by inhalation in a clinical setting, delivered through a vaporizer specifically designed for it. It is never taken by mouth or self-administered. The concentration delivered is continuously adjusted throughout the procedure based on the patient's age, response, and the other anesthetic drugs being used — including nitrous oxide, opioids, and benzodiazepines, all of which reduce the amount of desflurane needed.
- The required concentration decreases significantly with age — older adults need considerably less than younger adults.
- Higher concentrations are generally used in children than in adults to maintain the same depth of anesthesia.
- Your anesthesia team manages all decisions about concentration and timing.
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
The most common side effects during or after desflurane anesthesia include:
- Nausea and vomiting (reported in about 1 in 4 patients during maintenance)
- Coughing and breath-holding (very common during induction by mask)
- Temporary pauses in breathing (apnea)
- Fast heart rate (tachycardia) or slow heart rate (bradycardia)
- High blood pressure
- Sore throat after the procedure
- Headache
- Increased saliva production
More serious reactions — including severe airway spasm (laryngospasm), liver injury, dangerous heart rhythm changes, or a life-threatening muscle reaction called malignant hyperthermia — are less common but require immediate medical attention. Report any unusual symptoms after surgery to your care team right away.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Malignant hyperthermia: Desflurane can trigger this rare but life-threatening condition in genetically susceptible individuals. It causes a dangerous surge in body temperature and muscle metabolism. Signs include high fever, severe muscle rigidity, racing heart, and hemodynamic instability. The risk is higher with simultaneous use of succinylcholine. Emergency treatment is required immediately if it is suspected.
- Perioperative hyperkalemia (dangerous rise in blood potassium): Rare but has caused fatal heart rhythm problems in pediatric patients, especially those with Duchenne muscular dystrophy or other neuromuscular diseases.
- Respiratory risks in children: Must not be used to start anesthesia in children or to maintain anesthesia in non-intubated children. Children with asthma or recent upper airway infections face elevated risk of airway narrowing.
- QTc prolongation (abnormal heart electrical pattern): Has been reported, including a dangerous rhythm called torsade de pointes. Patients with Long QT Syndrome or those on QT-prolonging drugs need careful cardiac monitoring.
- Liver injury: Rare cases of hepatitis and liver failure have been reported, particularly in patients sensitized by prior halogenated anesthetic exposure. Repeated anesthesia in a short period should be approached with caution.
- Pediatric brain development: Animal studies suggest that prolonged anesthetic exposure (over 3 hours) in very young animals causes brain cell loss. The relevance in humans is uncertain, but the potential risk should be weighed for elective procedures in children under 3.
- Carbon monoxide risk: Desflurane can react with dried-out CO₂ absorbents in anesthesia machines to produce carbon monoxide. Equipment must be properly maintained.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Several drugs commonly used around the time of surgery interact with desflurane, affecting how much is needed or raising safety concerns:
- Nitrous oxide (N₂O): Reduces the concentration of desflurane needed to maintain anesthesia — the dose must be adjusted downward.
- Opioids (e.g., fentanyl): Also reduce the required desflurane concentration significantly — dose adjustment needed.
- Benzodiazepines (e.g., midazolam): Reduce the required desflurane concentration — dose adjustment needed.
- Muscle relaxants (succinylcholine, pancuronium, atracurium, vecuronium): Desflurane intensifies the effects of these drugs, so lower doses of the muscle relaxant may be sufficient during maintenance — guided by nerve stimulation monitoring.
- Succinylcholine (combined use): Increases the risk of malignant hyperthermia when used alongside desflurane.
This is not a complete list of interactions. Always talk with your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping, or changing any medication.
📋Before taking it▾
- Tell your anesthesia team if you or any blood relative has ever had malignant hyperthermia or a family history of it — desflurane is contraindicated in these cases.
- Tell your team if you have had liver problems (hepatitis, jaundice, or liver failure) after any halogenated anesthetic in the past — this is a contraindication.
- Tell your team about all medications you take, especially opioids, benzodiazepines, heart rhythm drugs, or anything that may affect the QT interval of your heart.
- Tell your team if your child has Duchenne muscular dystrophy or any neuromuscular disease — the risk of dangerous potassium levels is higher.
- Tell your team if your child has asthma or has had a recent respiratory infection — the risk of airway problems is elevated.
- Pregnancy: Safety during labor and delivery has not been established. Desflurane relaxes the uterus. Animal studies showed embryo-fetal toxicity at high doses. Discuss with your doctor if you are pregnant or planning to become pregnant.
- Breastfeeding: It is unknown whether desflurane passes into breast milk. Discuss timing with your care team.
- Older adults: The effective dose decreases substantially with age — the anesthesia team adjusts accordingly.
- Children under 3: For elective procedures requiring anesthesia, the potential risk to developing brain cells should be discussed with the medical team and weighed against the need for the procedure.
- Patients with chronic kidney or liver disease can generally receive desflurane, as it is minimally metabolized — but the care team should be informed of any such conditions.
🚑If you take too much▾
Too much desflurane causes a deepening of unconsciousness beyond what is needed, along with depression of breathing and heart function. In patients breathing on their own, this can progress to dangerously low oxygen levels. If overdose is suspected, the care team will immediately stop delivering desflurane, secure the airway, provide assisted breathing with oxygen, and support heart function until the patient stabilizes. Because desflurane clears from the body quickly, reducing or stopping delivery rapidly reverses its effects.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
The effects of desflurane on the brain and body track very closely — and very quickly — with the concentration being inhaled. Increasing the concentration deepens anesthesia; decreasing it allows patients to wake up. At anesthetic concentrations, desflurane lowers blood pressure in a dose-dependent way, and concentrations above a certain threshold can increase heart rate — meaning a faster heart rate during desflurane anesthesia may not reliably signal inadequate anesthesia depth. Studies have shown that patients tend to recover mental alertness more quickly after desflurane than after some other inhaled anesthetics.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
Desflurane is absorbed rapidly through the lungs — the concentration in the lungs reaches near-equilibrium with the inhaled concentration faster than older agents like isoflurane or halothane. It is barely metabolized by the liver: less than 0.02% of the absorbed drug is converted to waste products and excreted in the urine. Almost everything that was inhaled is simply exhaled back out. Washout (clearance from the body) is also faster than with isoflurane or halothane — by 5 days after anesthesia, residual lung concentrations are a tiny fraction of those seen with the older agents. This rapid uptake and clearance is a key feature that allows for quick adjustment of anesthesia depth and faster patient recovery.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 20º to 25ºC (68º to 77ºF) .
📄 Written from Desflurane’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Every point is grounded in that labeling — nothing is invented. How we use AI →
Supplements & herbs that interact with Desflurane
22 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Desflurane in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 2
- Moderate · 11
- Minor · 9
Educational information from a licensed clinical database (Natural Medicines) — see our data sources & update cadence. Not medical advice: an interaction being documented does not mean it will happen to you; do not start or stop medications or supplements without professional guidance.
🩺 Pharmacist Counseling Corner
Quick, plain-English answers to the questions patients ask most about Desflurane — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
What exactly is desflurane and why is my doctor using it for my surgery? ▾
What side effects should I expect when I wake up? ▾
Is there a serious reaction I should watch out for after my surgery? ▾
My child is having surgery — is desflurane safe for kids? ▾
I take several medications — will any of them interact with desflurane? ▾
I'm pregnant — is it safe for me to have desflurane anesthesia? ▾
Is Desflurane available over the counter? ▾
When was Desflurane first available? ▾
Who makes Desflurane? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Desflurane’s FDA-approved label information, summarized in plain language with AI, and reviewed by our pharmacy team before publication. Grounded in that labeling — nothing is made up. How we use AI →
🧰 Keep exploring
💊 How Desflurane comes
Desflurane is available in 2 forms. Different forms and brands can have different approved uses, doses, schedules, and directions. Follow the instructions for your exact product, and do not switch forms without guidance from your prescriber or pharmacist.
Inhalation solution (nebulizer)
How this form is used
- Suprane is approved to induce (start) and maintain general anesthesia in adults during inpatient and outpatient surgery
- Desflurane USP is approved to induce (start) and maintain general anesthesia in adults during inpatient and outpatient surgery
- Suprane is approved to maintain anesthesia in intubated infants and children after induction with a different agent
- Desflurane USP is approved to maintain anesthesia in intubated infants and children after induction with a different agent
- Suprane must be administered only by persons trained in the administration of general anesthesia, using a vaporizer specifically designed and designated for Suprane
- Desflurane USP must be administered only by persons trained in the administration of general anesthesia, using a vaporizer specifically designed and designated for desflurane
- Suprane should not be used as the sole agent to start anesthesia in patients with coronary artery disease or in cases where increases in heart rate or blood pressure are undesirable
- Desflurane USP is not approved for maintenance of anesthesia in non-intubated children due to increased risk of respiratory reactions including coughing and laryngospasm
Oral solution
📊 Desflurane across the U.S. market
How Desflurane appears in the FDA’s National Drug Code Directory — including its dosage forms, strengths, brand names, manufacturers, and FDA-listed product records. These are directory records, not sales or prescription volume.
FDA-listed product records by dose form (tablet variants merged) — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Desflurane is used
A general measure of how commonly Desflurane is prescribed, based on Medicaid — one of the largest public drug programs. The figure below is prescriptions filled in Q1–Q4 2025, summed across every form and brand of the drug.
Think of this as a proxy for how widely Desflurane is used, drawn from freely available public data. Medicaid is just one program — these numbers don’t include Medicare, other government coverage, or commercial and cash-pay prescriptions, so real-world use is higher than what’s shown here.
How commonly is Desflurane prescribed? Of the 1,596 medications we measure, Desflurane ranks #1,325 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 17% of them.
Utilization by Desflurane product
Pick a product to see its own Medicaid numbers. Each chip is one clinical product — a specific strength & dosage form as defined by RxNorm — with brand-name and generic versions combined.
desflurane 1000 MG/ML Inhalation Solution
Summed across the 1 of 16 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 562366
Shares are of the Medicaid prescriptions shown here. Product grouping follows RxNorm (the National Library of Medicine’s drug terminology), so “one product” means one strength & dosage form regardless of manufacturer. Dollar figures are gross Medicaid reimbursement before mandatory rebates — rebates (often large, especially for brand-name drugs) are confidential, so actual net cost to Medicaid is lower than shown.
Source: Medicaid State Drug Utilization Data (CMS), aggregated by generic ingredient — summed across every NDC (all brands, strengths, salt forms and dosage forms) of Desflurane, and across all states and both fee-for-service and managed-care claims. A general popularity signal; it excludes Medicare, commercial insurance and cash prescriptions, so it is not total U.S. use. Based on the 1 of 16 listed Desflurane NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Desflurane products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Desflurane — across manufacturers, strengths, and dosage forms, grouped by form with each product’s manufacturer and how the FDA approved it. The same medicine may be made and packaged by different companies, so a single drug can have many directory entries. (It’s also why a refill can look different — a new shape, color, or box — even though it contains the same medication.)
| Strength | Route | Manufacturer / Labeler | Category ⓘ | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Inhalation solution (nebulizer) | ||||
| 240 mL/240 mL | Respiratory (inhalation) | Baxter Healthcare Corporation × 9 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 240 mL/240 mL | Respiratory (inhalation) | General Injectables & Vaccines, Inc × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 240 mL/240 mL | Respiratory (inhalation) | Henry Schein, Inc. × 4 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 250 mL/250 mL | Respiratory (inhalation) | Piramal Critical Care Inc × 3 listings | UNAPPROVED DRUG OTHER | View NDC → |
| 240 mL/240 mL | Respiratory (inhalation) | Sandoz Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Oral solution | ||||
| 480 kg/480 kg | — | Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. | BULK INGREDIENT | View NDC → |
Showing 21 of 21 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 21 Desflurane NDCs →
📈 What people report — real-world data (FDA FAERS)
After a medicine reaches the market, patients, doctors and drugmakers can send the FDA reports of problems they think may be linked to it. Here’s what’s been reported for Desflurane — a signal of what to watch for, not proof the drug caused it.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). These are voluntary reports — they don’t prove the drug caused the effect, and counts reflect how often something was reported, not how often it actually happens. Reports also often name the very problem the medicine is taken for — a common reason to file one is that the drug didn’t help — so for a pain reliever you may see “pain” high on the list; that points to why the report was filed, not to the drug causing the symptom. This counts every report that lists Desflurane in any role, so the total runs higher than the FDA’s official dashboard, which counts only cases where the drug is the suspect. For the authoritative figures, see the FDA FAERS Public Dashboard. Always talk to your pharmacist or doctor.
🏛️ The road to your pharmacy
How Desflurane went from FDA review to the pharmacy shelf — the key milestones in its regulatory journey.
Source: Drugs@FDA.
🚨 Recall history
A recall is when a specific batch of a medicine is pulled from the market — usually a manufacturing issue, not a problem with the drug itself. Class I is most serious, Class III least.
Source: openFDA drug enforcement (recall) reports.
RxNorm Concept Web — From Ingredient to Every Form and Strength
This page starts with one ingredient concept (IN). The branches below show its dose-form concepts (SCDF), then the available clinical drug and strength concepts (SCD). Combination products remain separate concepts with their own pages.
RxCUI 27340 1 dose form · 1 strength
-
Dose form (SCDF) Inhalation Solution RxCUI 2108330In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 1000 MG/MLRxCUI 562366
Look up RxCUI 27340 in the RxCUI Atlas →
RxNorm is the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s normalized drug vocabulary. Its concept hierarchy can include forms that are not currently marketed; the status on each branch compares that concept with current FDA listings. RxCUIs identify vocabulary concepts, not individual packages or manufacturers.
📦 Supply & shortage status
Whether Desflurane is in short supply in the U.S. right now, plus any shortage history the FDA has on record. A shortage usually reflects a manufacturing or demand issue — not a safety problem with the drug.
Source: openFDA, from the FDA Drug Shortages database.
🏷️ Sold under these brand names
🏭 Manufacturers & labelers
RxNorm drug class
Desflurane belongs to the General Anesthetic class.
Classified by RxNorm RxClass — the U.S. National Library of Medicine's standardized drug-classification service (Established Pharmacologic Class from the FDA, the ATC drug family from the WHO, and mechanism of action). Reference only, not medical advice.
🔬 Where this comes from
Core label, product, RxNorm, safety, and utilization data on this page come from the sources identified below. AI-written, editorial, and licensed sections are labeled separately.
How we combine label and product data
HelloPharmacist combines public FDA and NLM records; we don’t author the underlying clinical facts. We identified 7 FDA-filed SPL label sets within the page’s selected clinical scope after exact ingredient or ingredient-combination matching and applicable route/form matching. The representative label is the starting point for the displayed reference monograph; the 12 largest stored in-scope SPL records, which may include that representative, are compared section by section, and the longest available version of each section is retained. Forms, routes, brands, labelers, product-listed strengths, and product-record counts are aggregated separately from ingredient-matched FDA NDC Directory records; package records listed above are associated with the linked SPL; and the normalized concept hierarchy comes from NLM RxNorm.
For canonical ingredient pages, bounded product-attributed indication and administration excerpts may be added to the AI evidence, and the generator is instructed to preserve available product, brand, route, and form qualifiers instead of treating one label as universal. Where a section is identified as AI-written, its plain-language text is generated from bounded label evidence. New draft drug pages remain in the admin review queue before first publication. Baxter Healthcare Corporation is the representative DailyMed label linked for verification and dates; it is not the sole source used for the page.
This is general education, not medical advice — always consult your doctor or pharmacist about your medications and any medical condition. For the exact wording of the linked representative label, view that label on DailyMed; some displayed composite sections may come from other in-scope SPL labels. Learn how we use AI and our data sources & update cadence.