Halothane: uses, dosing, side effects & brands
Halothane is a medicine sold in the U.S. under one brand. Below: what the FDA label says, every product that contains it, what the pills look like, and its recall record.
Key facts
- Available as
- Liquid
- Sold as
- Fluothane
- Prescription?
- Prescription only
- Generic available?
- Not in our catalog
Every halothane 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: Fluothane.
Halothane and breastfeeding
From LactMed, the US National Library of Medicine’s Drugs and Lactation Database — quoted, not rewritten.
Full LactMed record for halothane: levels in milk, effects in breastfed infants, and the drugs it would consider insteadHalothane is no longer available in the United States. There is no published experience with the therapeutic use of halothane as an anesthetic during breastfeeding, but trace amounts were found in the milk of a practicing anesthesiologist who had administered halothane in the operating room. Various recommendations have been made regarding breastfeeding after halothane anesthesia, from discarding the first pumping after recovery to discarding breastmilk for 24 to 48 hours after the surgical procedure. Although withholding breastfeeding for 24 h is probably unnecessary, a short-acting anesthetic is preferred. In one study, breastfeeding before general anesthesia induction reduced requirements of sevoflurane and propofol compared to those of nursing mothers whose breastfeeding was withheld or nonnursing women. It is possible that requirements for other anesthetic agents would be affected similarly.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, record revised December 21, 2020. LactMed states its information is not a substitute for professional judgement.
What people report to the FDA about halothane
The FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) collects reports from patients and clinicians. It holds 202 reports naming halothane, and the FDA flagged 89% 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:
- hyperthermia malignant12 reports
- laryngospasm12 reports
- pyrexia12 reports
- pulmonary oedema11 reports
- anaphylactoid reaction10 reports
- aspartate aminotransferase increased10 reports
- tachycardia10 reports
- alanine aminotransferase increased9 reports
Read these as a signal, not a rate. A report does not mean halothane 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
Can you take halothane 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 halothane 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 halothane come in?
Across the brands we track, halothane is currently marketed as liquid, 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 halothane?
We do not currently list a generic-labelled halothane 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). Halothane: uses, dosing, side effects & brands. https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/halothane
- MLA
- “Halothane: uses, dosing, side effects & brands.” pharmaranks, 24 July 2026, https://pharmaranks.com/drugs/halothane.
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 halothane on DailyMed (NIH) ↗.