Dobutamine
Dobutamine is an intravenous medication used for short-term support of heart function in people with cardiac decompensation — when the heart is not pumping effectively — due to heart disease or heart surgery.
🧬 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 13 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 →
📖 Dobutamine: Patient Information Guide
A plain-language walkthrough of Dobutamine — 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▾
Dobutamine injection is used in hospital settings to provide short-term support to the heart when it is not pumping effectively.
- Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose, Dobutamine In Dextrose, Dobutamine Hydrochloride, and Dobutamine injections are all indicated for short-term inotropic support (helping the heart pump more strongly) in patients with cardiac decompensation — when the heart muscle's ability to contract is significantly reduced
- Supported causes include organic heart disease (structural problems with the heart) and complications following cardiac (heart) surgery
- All supported products are approved only for short-term IV use; clinical studies do not extend beyond 48 hours of repeated or continuous infusion
- Dobutamine has not been shown safe or effective for long-term treatment of heart failure (congestive heart failure), and similar long-term use has been associated with increased hospitalization and death — particularly in patients with severe (NYHA Class IV) heart failure symptoms
⚙️How it works▾
Dobutamine directly stimulates beta-receptors in the heart muscle, causing it to contract with greater force. This boosts cardiac output — the amount of blood the heart pumps out per minute — without causing the large increase in heart rate seen with some similar drugs. It also tends to slightly reduce systemic vascular resistance (the pressure the heart pumps against), which further eases the heart's workload. Unlike dopamine, dobutamine does not work by releasing the body's own norepinephrine; it acts directly on the receptor itself.
💊How it's taken▾
Dobutamine is given only by continuous intravenous infusion in a hospital or closely monitored clinical setting — it is never taken by mouth or self-administered at home. The infusion is started at a low rate and carefully adjusted every few minutes based on how your heart rate, blood pressure, urine output, and cardiac output respond. A calibrated electronic pump is used to ensure precise, consistent delivery.
- Dobutamine concentrate products must be diluted in a compatible IV solution before use, and the prepared solution should be used within 24 hours
- Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose and Dobutamine In Dextrose come pre-mixed and are administered directly via IV catheter with an electronic infusion device
- Your care team manages all dosing decisions — do not adjust the infusion yourself
🤒Side effects — in detail▾
The most common side effects seen with dobutamine are related to its effects on the heart and blood vessels.
- Increased heart rate (usually 5–15 beats per minute in most patients)
- Rise in systolic blood pressure (top number)
- Extra or irregular heartbeats (premature ventricular beats), seen in about 5% of patients
- Nausea
- Headache
- Palpitations (sensation of a racing or pounding heart)
- Chest pain or anginal (heart-related) chest discomfort
- Shortness of breath
- Redness, inflammation, or skin damage at the IV site (phlebitis or, rarely, cutaneous necrosis)
- Mild drop in blood potassium level
More serious reactions — such as a sharp drop in blood pressure, a rapid irregular heart rhythm, or signs of an allergic reaction (rash, fever, wheezing) — require immediate medical attention. The care team monitoring your infusion will watch for these throughout treatment.
⚠️Warnings & precautions▾
- Heart rate and blood pressure spikes: Dobutamine can cause a significant rise in heart rate or systolic blood pressure. About 10% of adult patients in studies had heart rate increases of 30 beats per minute or more. Reducing the dose usually reverses this.
- Atrial fibrillation risk: Because dobutamine speeds up conduction through the heart's electrical system, people with atrial fibrillation can develop a dangerously fast ventricular rate. A digitalis medication should generally be given first in these patients.
- Irregular heartbeats: Dobutamine can trigger or worsen ventricular ectopic activity (extra, out-of-rhythm heartbeats). Ventricular tachycardia (a serious fast rhythm) is rare but possible.
- Sulfite sensitivity: Some formulations contain sodium bisulfite, which can cause severe allergic reactions — including anaphylaxis or serious asthmatic episodes — especially in people with asthma.
- Fluid overload: IV fluids can cause fluid buildup, diluting blood electrolytes and potentially leading to pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs). Excess potassium-free fluid can lower blood potassium to dangerous levels.
- Not for long-term use: Clinical evidence does not support dobutamine for chronic heart failure management. Long-term use of similar drugs has been linked to increased mortality, particularly in patients with severe heart failure.
🔀What it interacts with▾
Dobutamine can interact with certain medications that affect the heart or its chemical messengers.
- COMT inhibitors (e.g., entacapone): Can increase heart rate, trigger arrhythmias, and cause blood pressure changes — use together requires caution and close monitoring
- Nitroprusside: When used together, this combination can increase cardiac output and lower pulmonary wedge pressure more than either drug alone — beneficial in some cases but requires careful management
- Alkaline IV solutions (e.g., sodium bicarbonate): Dobutamine concentrate must not be added to these — chemical incompatibility can degrade the drug
- Other drugs in the same IV bag: Mixing dobutamine with other medications is not recommended due to risk of physical incompatibility
- Digitalis, furosemide, lidocaine, morphine, heparin, acetaminophen, and others: No harmful interactions were found in clinical studies when these were used alongside dobutamine
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▾
- Idiopathic hypertrophic subaortic stenosis (a specific type of obstructive heart thickening): Dobutamine is contraindicated — do not use
- Previous allergic reaction to dobutamine: Do not use if you have had a prior hypersensitivity reaction to this drug
- Corn allergy: Some dobutamine products contain dextrose (sugar) derived from corn — tell your care team if you have a known corn allergy
- Atrial fibrillation: Risk of a dangerously fast heart rate; a digitalis preparation should typically be started before dobutamine is begun
- Pre-existing high blood pressure: Increases the risk of an exaggerated blood pressure response during infusion
- Asthma or sulfite sensitivity: Certain formulations contain sodium bisulfite, which can trigger serious allergic or asthmatic reactions
- Children under 30 kg: The pre-mixed Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose container system may not suit their dosing needs — alternative forms should be considered
🚑If you take too much▾
Too much dobutamine causes excessive stimulation of the heart's beta-receptors, which can lead to a very fast heart rate (tachycardia), dangerous heart rhythms (including ventricular fibrillation), high blood pressure, or, through vasodilation, a drop in blood pressure. Symptoms may also include nausea, vomiting, tremor, anxiety, palpitations, headache, and chest pain. Because dobutamine has a very short half-life (about 2 minutes), stopping or reducing the infusion is the first and most important step — the drug clears the body quickly. In cases of severe heart rhythm problems, medications like propranolol or lidocaine may be used; contact a Poison Control Center for up-to-date guidance.
📡Pharmacodynamics — effects in the body▾
Dobutamine increases the strength of the heart's contractions (a positive inotropic effect) and generally raises the amount of blood pumped per beat (stroke volume) and per minute (cardiac output). It produces comparatively modest increases in heart rate and causes mild to moderate widening of blood vessels (vasodilation), which lowers systemic vascular resistance. It also speeds electrical conduction through the atrioventricular node — the heart's electrical relay — which is why it can be risky in people with atrial fibrillation. Blood pressure effects vary: systolic pressure often rises, while the reduction in vascular resistance can keep the overall rise modest.
🔬Pharmacokinetics — how your body processes it▾
Dobutamine acts quickly — the infusion typically begins working within 1 to 2 minutes, though the full effect of a given rate may take up to 10 minutes to appear. Its plasma half-life (the time for half the drug to leave the bloodstream) is only about 2 minutes, meaning it is cleared from the body very rapidly once the infusion is stopped. The drug is broken down mainly by methylation (a chemical modification) and conjugation in the body, and the byproducts are excreted in the urine. The inactive breakdown product 3-O-methyl dobutamine is one of the main compounds found in urine after dosing.
📦How to store it▾
Store at 20° to 25°C (68° to 77°F).
📄 Written from Dobutamine’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 Dobutamine
17 supplements and herbal products have documented interactions with Dobutamine in the licensed clinical database we use. Most are manageable — but your pharmacist should know about everything you take, including vitamins and herbals.
- Major · 1
- Moderate · 7
- 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 Dobutamine — the kind of thing our pharmacy team would talk through with you at the counter.
Why am I being given dobutamine — what is it actually doing for me? ▾
How long will I need this IV drip? ▾
What side effects should I tell the nurse about right away? ▾
I have atrial fibrillation — is dobutamine safe for me? ▾
Can dobutamine interact with my other medications? ▾
Will I be on dobutamine at home, or is this only a hospital treatment? ▾
Is Dobutamine available over the counter? ▾
When was Dobutamine first available? ▾
Who makes Dobutamine? ▾
💬 Answers drafted from Dobutamine’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 Dobutamine comes
Dobutamine is available in 1 form. 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.
Injection
How this form is used
- Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose and Dobutamine In Dextrose are indicated for short-term inotropic support in cardiac decompensation due to depressed heart muscle contractility from organic heart disease or cardiac surgery
- Dobutamine and Dobutamine Hydrochloride injections are indicated for the same short-term inotropic support when IV therapy is necessary
- All dobutamine injection products are for short-term hospital use only — clinical trial experience does not extend beyond 48 hours
- Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose and Dobutamine In Dextrose are administered as an IV infusion through a catheter or needle using a calibrated electronic infusion pump to control the flow rate
- Dobutamine and Dobutamine Hydrochloride concentrate forms must be diluted in at least 50 mL of a compatible IV solution before administration — do not add to sodium bicarbonate or other strongly alkaline solutions
- Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose solutions may develop a pink color over time due to slight oxidation — this does not mean the drug has lost potency
- Dobutamine Hydrochloride in Dextrose container systems may not be appropriate for children under 30 kg — other dosage forms may be needed
📊 Dobutamine across the U.S. market
How Dobutamine 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.
Also listed with the FDA, not a patient dose form: Powder (1) — bulk drug substance sold to compounders/manufacturers and multi-item kits. These aren’t counted in the dose-form total above.
Share of FDA-listed product records by manufacturer — FDA National Drug Code Directory. Record counts are not sales or prescription volume.
📈 How widely Dobutamine is used
A general measure of how commonly Dobutamine 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 Dobutamine 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 Dobutamine prescribed? Of the 1,594 medications we measure, Dobutamine ranks #1,043 by Medicaid prescriptions — more than 35% of them.
Utilization by Dobutamine 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.
20 ML dobutamine 12.5 MG/ML Injection Most dispensed
Summed across the 6 of 12 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 1812168
250 ML dobutamine 4 MG/ML Injection
Summed across the 1 of 6 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 309987
250 ML dobutamine 2 MG/ML Injection
Summed across the 1 of 6 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 309986
250 ML dobutamine 1 MG/ML Injection
Summed across the 2 of 8 listed NDC products with Medicaid activity — every brand and generic of this exact strength & form. RxNorm 309985
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 Dobutamine, 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 10 of 32 listed Dobutamine NDCs with Medicaid activity.
🔍 Compare Dobutamine products
A representative set of FDA-listed product records for Dobutamine — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 💊Injection | ||||
| 400 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | A-S Medication Solutions | NDA | Find on DailyMed ↗ |
| 100 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | Baxter Healthcare Corporation × 3 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 200 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | Baxter Healthcare Corporation × 3 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 400 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | Baxter Healthcare Corporation × 3 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 12.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Hainan Poly Pharm. Co., Ltd. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 100 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | HF Acquisition Co. LLC, DBA HealthFirst | NDA | View NDC → |
| 12.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | HF Acquisition Co LLC, DBA HealthFirst × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 100 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | HF Acquisition Co LLC, DBA HealthFirst × 3 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 200 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | HF Acquisition Co LLC, DBA HealthFirst × 4 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 12.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Hikma Farmaceutica | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 12.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 12.5 mg/mL | Intravenous | Hospira, Inc. × 4 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 100 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | Hospira, Inc. × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 200 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | Hospira, Inc. × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 400 mg/100 mL | Intravenous | Hospira, Inc. × 2 listings | NDA | View NDC → |
| 250 mg/20 mL | Intravenous | Slate Run Pharmaceuticals × 2 listings | ANDA | View NDC → |
| 💊Bulk drug substance | ||||
| 25 kg/25 kg | — | Recordati Industria Chimica E Farmaceutica Spa | DRUG FOR FURTHER PROCESSING | View NDC → |
Showing 38 of 38 products — FDA National Drug Code Directory. See every product, package size and price: browse all 38 Dobutamine 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 Dobutamine — 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 Dobutamine 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 Dobutamine 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 3616 2 dose forms · 6 strengths
-
Dose form (SCDF) Injectable Solution RxCUI 374370In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 12.5 MG/MLRxCUI 228352950 MG/MLRxCUI 252860 -
Dose form (SCDF) Injection RxCUI 1812167In current FDA listingsClinical drug / strength (SCD) 20 ML dobutamine 12.5 MG/MLRxCUI 1812168250 ML dobutamine 1 MG/MLRxCUI 309985250 ML dobutamine 2 MG/MLRxCUI 309986250 ML dobutamine 4 MG/MLRxCUI 309987
Look up RxCUI 3616 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 Dobutamine 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
Dobutamine belongs to the beta-Adrenergic Agonist 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 13 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. HF Acquisition Co LLC, DBA HealthFirst 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.