Prevention, diagnosis and treatment of prolonged apnoea.

T H E increasing understanding of the mechanism of action of the muscle relaxants has led to a high degree of safety in their use. Nevertheless, the occasional patient is still encountered in whom the response to the drug is greater than anticipated. There are already a number of reports in the literature outlining the almost unlimited number of causes for this prolonged response (Paton, 1958; Churchill-Davidson, 1956, 1959; Foldes, |Rendell-Baker and Birch, 1956). The aim of this review is to analyze the principles for the clinical use of the muscle relaxants with the maximum degree of safety— particularly in the light of recent investigations in neuromuscular transmission.