Anesthesiologists perceive that the ideal muscle relaxant is not yet available, particularly the nondepolarizing one with a rapid onset and a short duration of action. There is also a need for relaxants with different durations of action but which would be free from side effects. During the process of this development several new compounds have been tested and four have reached an advanced stat...

The physiology of neuromuscular transmission could be analyzed and understood at the most simple level by using the classic model of nerve signaling to muscle through the acetylcholine receptor. The mammalian neuromuscular junction is the prototypical and most extensively studied synapse. Research has provided more detailed information on the processes that, within the classic scheme, can modif...

BACKGROUND Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is an inherited pharmacogenetic syndrome that is triggered by halogenated anesthetics and/or depolarizing muscle relaxants. MH-susceptible (MHS) skeletal muscle has been shown to be more sensitive to caffeine-induced contracture than muscle from nonsusceptible (MHN) subjects and is the basis for the most commonly used clinical diagnostic test to determine ...

PURPOSE To describe the anesthetic management of a patient with Jansky-Bielschowsky disease (JBD), the late infantile form of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis, characterized by dementia, severe and drug resistant grand mal, myoclonic seizures, and blindness. CLINICAL FEATURES A 14-yr-old girl with JBD was scheduled for resection of a gingival tumour and an infected sinus in the sacral area. Her...