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What the label lists and what reports show

Sodium nitroprusside side effects

Sodium nitroprusside's FDA label lists its adverse reactions in its own words. FAERS holds 382 reports naming it through July 30, 2026; the reaction reported most often, leaving out the conditions it is used for, product-use terms and outcomes, is renal failure (74 reports).

  • Generic listed
  • Boxed warning

Check it at the source: the sodium nitroprusside FDA label on DailyMed (effective August 10, 2026, Micro Labs Limited); the FDA FAERS public dashboard.

What does the label list?

From the label: adverse reactions

The most important adverse reactions to sodium nitroprusside are the avoidable ones of excessive hypotension and cyanide toxicity, described above under WARNINGS . The adverse reactions described in this section develop less rapidly and, as it happens, less commonly. Methemoglobinemia: As described in CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY above, sodium nitroprusside infusions can cause sequestration of hemoglobin as methemoglobin. The back-conversion process is normally rapid, and clinically significant methemoglobinemia (>10%) is seen only rarely in patients receiving sodium nitroprusside. …

Source: FDA drug label, Micro Labs Limited, effective August 10, 2026 (SPL set 5a599880-c133-44ef-a9f2-bd1b681563be), via openFDA; the full label on DailyMed

What do FAERS reports show?

382 reports list sodium nitroprusside among the medicines taken, each a report of something that happened, not proof the medicine caused it; 84 are coded as a death and 173 as a hospital stay. Counts follow how widely a medicine is used and watched, and they are not a measure of how risky it is. Of the 21 reactions below, none is named by the same term (in US spelling) in the label's adverse reactions, warnings or patient leaflet; a reaction the label does not name may still be there under another word, and a report does not show that the medicine caused it.

The 25 most reported reactions

  • Renal Failure74
  • Pain62
  • Injury59
  • Anxiety58
  • Unevaluable Event55
  • Drug Ineffective (a use or a product term, not a reaction)53
  • Fear53
  • Toxicity To Various Agents49
  • Renal Injury44
  • Emotional Distress43
  • Anhedonia41
  • Renal Impairment38
  • Stress38
  • Hypotension (a use or a product term, not a reaction)33
  • Multi-Organ Failure32
  • Death (an outcome recorded in the report)24
  • Depression24
  • Hypertension20
  • Cerebrovascular Accident19
  • Respiratory Failure18
  • Mental Status Changes17
  • Anaemia14
  • Cardiac Arrest14
  • Off Label Use (a use or a product term, not a reaction)14
  • Arrhythmia12

Source: FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) via openFDA, reports through July 30, 2026; reactions as MedDRA preferred terms

What next?

Sodium nitroprusside: the full record
label, generics, price, shortages, recalls
Side effects hub
the most reported medicines and reactions