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Cisatracurium: uses, dosing, side effects & brands

Cisatracurium is a medicine sold in the U.S. under 2 brand and generic names. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.

By the pharmaranks editorial teamReviewed against the FDA (openFDA label, NDC Directory & Enforcement) sourcesUpdated Jul 24, 2026How we research

Key facts

Available as
Injectable
Sold as
2 products — Nimbex and Nimbex Preservative Free
Prescription?
Prescription only
Generic available?
Not in our catalog

Every cisatracurium product we track (2)

Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.

Cisatracurium products
#DrugRatingPharmacy pays
1
Nimbex
72/100—View →
2
Nimbex Preservative Free
72/100—View →

Cisatracurium recalls

From the FDA Enforcement database. A recall covers specific lots — not the drug as a whole.

How long cisatracurium keeps

The date on a sealed pack is not the only one: some cisatracurium labels start a second clock once the product is opened or mixed, as short as 21 days.

The in-use limits cisatracurium labels print, quoted

Cisatracurium and breastfeeding

From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.

No information is available on the use of cisatracurium during breastfeeding. Because it is short acting, highly polar and poorly absorbed orally, it is not likely to reach the breastmilk in high concentration or to reach the bloodstream of the infant. When a combination of anesthetic agents is used for a procedure, follow the recommendations for the most problematic medication used during the procedure. Consider using a cisatracurium product that has no benzyl alcohol preservative.

Full LactMed record for cisatracurium: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider instead

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised November 30, 2022. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.

What people report to the FDA about cisatracurium

The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 668 reports naming cisatracurium, and the FDA flagged 95% of those reports as serious. The effects reported most often — leaving out reports about overdose, misuse or the condition being treated, which dominate the raw list for common medicines:

  • anaesthetic complication neurological110 reports
  • anaphylactic shock81 reports
  • hypotension34 reports
  • hyperthermia malignant24 reports
  • hypoxia24 reports
  • toxic epidermal necrolysis24 reports
  • cyanosis18 reports
  • hypokalaemia17 reports

Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean cisatracurium caused the effect — anyone can file one, and many describe people taking several medicines for several conditions. Crucially there is no denominator: FAERS does not record how many people took the drug, so these counts cannot be turned into “X% of patients” — a bigger number often just means a more widely used or more talked-about drug. Duplicates exist, and publicity drives reporting. For what is actually established, read the FDA label.

Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved August 25, 2026.

Related calculators

How long it stays in your system →

Frequently asked questions

Can you take cisatracurium with other medicines?

It depends on the medicine. We check it against the FDA labels rather than guessing: our interaction checker searches each drug's own label for the other and quotes what it says, naming the section it came from. Run cisatracurium against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.

What brand names is cisatracurium sold under?

We track 2 cisatracurium-containing products in the U.S.: Nimbex and Nimbex Preservative Free. They are the same active ingredient; they differ in form, manufacturer, price and FDA recall record.

What forms does cisatracurium come in?

Across the brands we track, cisatracurium is currently marketed as injectable, per the FDA's National Drug Code Directory. Each form is dosed differently — follow the label for the exact product you were prescribed.

Is there a generic cisatracurium?

We do not currently list a generic-labelled cisatracurium product. That does not always mean none exists — it means none appears under a generic name in the FDA data we track. Ask your pharmacist.

Has cisatracurium been recalled?

The FDA's Enforcement database lists 3 recall records whose product description mentions cisatracurium. The most recent: Cisatracurium Besylate Injection USP (Nov 26, 2025). A recall applies to specific lots, not to the drug as a whole — check the record for the affected lot numbers.

Cite this page
APA
pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Cisatracurium: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cisatracurium
MLA
“Cisatracurium: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/cisatracurium.

We summarise public FDA and NIH sources — for a clinical claim, cite the primary source we link to as well.

Sources: FDA openFDA drug label, National Drug Code Directory, and Enforcement (recall) database. This page reproduces public FDA data and is not medical advice. Dosing is set by your prescriber.

Read the full FDA label for cisatracurium on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.