Health Sciences · Hospital for Sick Children
A small (12 cm wide) white cardboard carton, marked with red and black printing, contains four glass ampoules of an original ten. The top surface of the carton has a piece of surgical tape applied to it that is marked with red handwriting.
The ampoules, marked with red printing applied to the glass surfaces, contain 2 ml of liquid Droperidol. Each ampoule has a blue dot on its cap.
Accession Number: 2025.sk.68
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Glass
Case:
Written on the top of the case box in red pigment “STRONG’
Written in red pigment on surgical tape attached to the top of the case: “OUT DATED// DO NOT USE”
Written on the bottom of the case box in red pigment “Special// English// Concentrated// Solution// [illegible, possibly “IHS”]”
Ampoules:
Red markings on the ampoules include the following information: “04/C/11”
Box: Height = 10, Width = 12, Length = 1.5,
Droperidol is a sedative drug that blocks dopamine receptors. From the 1970s until the early 2000s, it was widely used in anesthesia to prevent nausea and vomiting post surgery. It was also used in conjunction with Fentanyl to produce a state of neuroleptanalgesia, in which the patient is sedated but conscious during an operation, or with Fentanyl and nitrous oxide to produce neuroleptanaesthesia, a form of anesthesia useful in surgeries in which typical anesthetic techniques are dangerous or ineffective.
The cardboard case is slightly warped and discoloured from water damage, though intact. Only four of ten ampoules remain. The remaining ampoules are unused.
Associated Instruments:
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, England (English Branch of Janssen Pharmaceutica, Beerse, Belgium)
Date of Manufacture: c. 1970s
Provenance:
Kyle J. Kramer (2020). “The Surprising Re-Emergence of Droperidol.” Anesthesia Progress 67, 3: 125–26.
Theodore H. Stanley, Talmage D Egan, and Hugo Van Aken. “A Tribute to Dr. Paul A. J. Janssen: Entrepreneur Extraordinaire, Innovative Scientist, and Significant Contributor to Anesthesiology.” Anesthesia and Analgesia 106, no. 2 (2008): 451–62.
Droperidol was first synthesized in 1961 by Janssen Research Laboratories of Belgium. It was approved by the FDA in 1970; In 1968, it had been approved as Innovar for use in a 50:1 ratio of droperidol to fentanyl (See Stanley, Egan, and Aken 2008).
Janssen Research Laboratories was founded in 1953 with the goal of developing more effective analgesics based on the chemical structures of existing opioid painkillers morphine and meperidine.
In 1961 Janssen Research Laboratories was purchased by the American corporation Johnson & Johnson.