Atracurium is a nondepolarizing skeletal muscle relaxant used to facilitate endotracheal intubation and to induce skeletal muscle relaxation during surgery or mechanical ventilation. The drug undergoes a spontaneous non-enzymatic biotransformation, yielding laudanosine and an acrylate moiety. This report documents the case of a 45-year-old anesthesiologist who was found dead at the hospital whe...

Results from in vitro experiments, using the hypogastric nerve--vas deferens preparation, and the phrenic nerve--hemidiaphragm preparation of the guineapig, have been used to determine the separation between the neuromuscular and ganglionic blocking effects of atracurium and tubocurarine. Regression lines were used to calculate the concentrations of each drug (99% confidence limits) which would...

The potencies of atracurium, Org NC 45 and pancuronium were determined using cumulative dose-response curves. The effective doses producing 95% twitch depression were 279 microgram kg-1, 56 microgram kg-1 and 64 microgram kg-1 respectively, the relative potency being 1:5.0:4.3. The calculated log-probit dose-response curves showed the steepest slope for pancuronium, although the slopes did not ...

Atracurium and alcuronium have been compared during halothane anaesthesia, by measurement of the mechanical response of the adductor pollicis muscles to train-of-four stimulation and by clinical observation. Atracurium appeared significantly shorter-acting than alcuronium. However, results suggested that the action of alcuronium may not be of "medium duration". A comparison of three indices of ...

The use of atracurium during major abdominal surgery was assessed in 20 infants with hepatic dysfunction caused by biliary atresia. An initial dose of 0.6 mg kg-1 provided excellent intubating conditions in all patients. Subsequent neuromuscular blockade was monitored with a peripheral nerve stimulator and incremental doses of atracurium were given on reappearance of a single twitch. Neuromuscu...

Twenty patients in the intensive care unit received an infusion of atracurium to permit mechanical ventilation. The duration of infusion ranged from 38 to 219 h and the average rate of infusion during the study was 0.76 mg kg-1 h-1. In 14 patients an increase in atracurium requirement occurred within the first 72 h of the infusion. Recovery from neuromuscular blockade after a prolonged infusion...