Ethanolamine Oleate: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Ethanolamine Oleate is a sclerosing agent sold in the U.S. under one brand, for esophageal and gastric varices. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Drug class
- Sclerosing Agent
- Treats
- Esophageal and Gastric Varices
- Available as
- Injectable
- Sold as
- Ethamolin
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
How ethanolamine oleate is dosed
From the FDA label for Ethamolin (application NDA019357). Other ethanolamine oleate products — different forms, different strengths — are dosed differently. Follow the label for the one you were prescribed.
Local ETHAMOLIN Injection sclerotherapy of esophageal varices should be performed by physicians who are famillar with an acceptable technique. The usual intravenous dose is 1.5 to 5.0 mL per varix. The maximum dose per treatment session should not exceed 20 mL. Patients with significant liver dysfunction (Child Class C) or concomitant cardiopulmonary disease should usually receive less than the recommended maximum dose. Submucosal injections are not recommended as they reportedly are more likely to result in ulceration at the site of injection. To obliterate the varix, injections may be made at the time of the acute bleeding episode and then after one week, six weeks, three months, and six months, as indicated. Note: Parenteral drug products should be inspected visually for particulate matter and discoloration before administration whenever solution and container permit.
Ethanolamine Oleate side effects
The reported frequency of complications/adverse events per injection session was 13%. The most common complications were pleural effusion/infiltration (2.1%), esophageal ulcer (2.1 %), pyrexia (1.8%), retrosternal pain (1.6%), esophageal stricture (1.3%), and pneumonia (1.2%). Other adverse local esophageal reactions have also been reported at rates of 0.1 to 0.4%, including esophagitis, tearing of the esophagus, sloughing of the mucosa overlying the injected varix, ulceration, stricture, necrosis, periesophageal abscess and perforation (see PRECAUTIONS). These complications appear to be dependent upon the dose and the patient's clinical state. Bacteremia has been observed in patients following injection of esophageal varices with ETHAMOLlN. Pyrexia and retrosternal pain are not infrequently observed during the post-injection period. Fatal aspiration pneumonia has occurred in patients with esophageal varices who underwent ETHAMOLIN Injection Sclerotherapy (see PRECAUTIONS). Anaphylactic shock and acute renal failure with spontaneous recovery have occurred (see PRECAUTIONS). A case of disseminated intravascular coagulation has been reported. Spinal cord paralysis due to occlusion of the anterior spinal artery has been reported in one child eight hours after ETHAMOLIN sclerotherapy.
Who shouldn’t take ethanolamine oleate
Injection should not be administered to subjects with a known hypersensitivity to ethanolamine, oleic acid, or ethanolamine oleate.
Every ethanolamine oleate product we track (1)
Same active ingredient — different manufacturer, form, price and FDA recall record. That last one is what our independent score measures.
Only one: Ethamolin.
What people report to the FDA about ethanolamine oleate
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 19 reports naming ethanolamine oleate, and the FDA flagged 100% 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:
- oesophageal varices haemorrhage5 reports
- portal vein thrombosis3 reports
- abdominal pain1 reports
- abdominal pain upper1 reports
- anaemia1 reports
- aphasia1 reports
- apraxia1 reports
- arterial haemorrhage1 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean ethanolamine oleate 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 section above.
Source: openFDA drug/event (FAERS), retrieved July 25, 2026.
Related calculators
Frequently asked questions
What is ethanolamine oleate?
Ethamolin (Ethanolamine Oleate) is a sclerosing agent used to treat Esophageal and Gastric Varices.
What kind of drug is ethanolamine oleate?
The FDA classifies ethanolamine oleate as a sclerosing agent. If you are checking whether it is safe to combine with something else, the class is what matters — two drugs from the same class usually should not be stacked.
Can you take ethanolamine oleate 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 ethanolamine oleate against whatever else you take — and remember that a label not naming a drug is not the same as that combination being safe.
What forms does ethanolamine oleate come in?
Across the brands we track, ethanolamine oleate 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 ethanolamine oleate?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled ethanolamine oleate 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.
Cite this page
- APA
- pharmaranks. (2026, July 24). Ethanolamine Oleate: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/ethanolamine-oleate
- MLA
- “Ethanolamine Oleate: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/ethanolamine-oleate.
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 ethanolamine oleate on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.