News flash: Old Mother Hubbard reports the cupboard is bare...time for the FDA to let droperidol out of the (black) box

Abstract

A quick way for a clinical pharmacist to eliminate himself or herself from "employee of the month" consideration is to mention the term medication shortage. Even with training geared toward maximizing resources, the cumulative disappearance of a plethora of medications for the treatment of nausea, vomiting, and/or primary headaches is almost too much for emergency medicine physicians to manage. With prochlorperazine, metoclopramide, promethazine, and ondansetron in increasingly short supply, it is time for the Food and Drug Administration to revisit droperidol's black box warning driven by QTc interval prolongation, given its questionable validity, and restore droperidol's place in the armamentarium of emergency medicine physicians.