Effects of methylprednisolone on the duration of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular block

BACKGROUND We aim to investigate whether intraoperative use of methylprednisolone could affect the duration of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade. METHODS A double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial was conducted. A total of 136 patients underwent gynecologic laparoscopic surgery were randomly divided into 3 groups: pregroup, receiving intravenous injection of methylprednisolone (40 mg) 30 minutes before induction of anesthesia; postgroup, receiving intravenous injection of methylprednisolone (40 mg) immediately after induction of anesthesia and intubation; and control group, receiving intravenous injection of normal saline. Patients were intravenously administrated with rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg, and changes in adductor policies evoked twitch responses were measured by ulnar nerve stimulator. RESULTS We found that all patients achieved maximum blockade effects, and there was no difference in onset time among the 2 groups. For time required to achieve train-of-four ratio (TOFR) 90%, pregroup (64.50 ± 10.52 minutes) and postgroup (65.29 ± 11.64 minutes) were significantly shorter than that of the control group (71.04 ± 10.55 minutes, P = .027), whereas clinical duration and total duration were significantly shorter in the 2 groups received methylprednisolone than the control group. However, there was no significant difference between the 2 treatment groups either in clinical duration and total duration of muscle relaxants, or time required to achieve TOFR 90%. No significant difference was found in recovery index among the 3 groups. CONCLUSION Our findings suggest that a single intravenous injection of methylprednisolone, no matter preoperatively or intraoperatively, could shorten the duration of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade.