This episode marks the start of the story arc involving Jeanie Boulet and Dr. Anspaugh's cancer-stricken son, Scott.
Product placement for Gateway 2000 (a computer manufacturer) is especially prolific in this episode. Kerry Weaver is drinking out of a cowhide-pattern (Gateway logo) coffee cup while talking to Anspaugh in his office, and a Gateway shipping box is in the background while Corday is talking to a patient.
Wernicke's encephalopathy, also called wet brain, is a set of neurological symptoms caused by biochemical lesions in the central nervous system due to a lack of vitamin B, especially thiamine (vitamin B1). Symptoms include ophthalmoplegia (weakness or paralysis of eye muscles), ataxia (loss of voluntary muscle control) and confusion. Wernicke encephalopathy is most often seen in people who have consumed an excessively large amount of alcohol, excessive alcohol consumption depletes the body's electrolytes and vitamin levels, which is what causes the symptoms of a hangover; the condition is also seen in people experiencing severe malnutrition and in rare cases patients following gastric bypass surgery.
Mariska Hargitay and Maria Bello also worked together on Law & Order: SVU.
Julianna Margulies (Carol Hathaway) & Geraldine Hughes (Susan McFarlan) also worked together on episode 1.15, Bang (2010), of The Good Wife (2009) as Alicia Florrick & Rachel Knox respectively.