BACKGROUND The most sensitive diagnostic criterion of myasthenia gravis is a decrement in the muscular response to repetitive stimulation. The authors hypothesized that myasthenia gravis patients who show a train-of-four ratio (T4/T1) < 0.9 in the preanesthetic period will have increased sensitivity to nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking agents compared with myasthenia gravis patients with p...

BACKGROUND Increase in intraocular pressure (IOP) following tracheal intubation during general anesthesia can be troublesome. We compared the influence of two muscle relaxants, cisatracurium and atracurium, on IOP in patients undergoing general anesthesia. METHODS This randomized, double-blind, comparative trial was conducted on 90 candidates for elective non-ophthalmic surgery under general ...

Atracurium 0.3 mg kg-1 was given to two groups of patients to compare the recovery of spontaneous breathing with that of peripheral neuromuscular function. Anaesthesia was maintained in one group (n = 6) with an infusion of etomidate (mean flow rate 24 micrograms kg-1 min-1) and in the other group (n = 5) with 0.5% halothane. From the time of discontinuing ventilation, about 5 min after the rea...

To determine the onset and recovery times and haemodynamic effects of intubating doses of atracurium (0.4 mg.kg-1), d-tubocurarine (0.8 mg.kg-1), pancuronium (0.12 mg.kg-1), and vecuronium (0.07 mg.kg-1), sixty-seven children aged one to eight years were studied under halothane and nitrous oxide anaesthesia. The time to maximum twitch depression and the time to recovery to T1/Tc 25 per cent wer...

PURPOSE To evaluate early and late histopathologic changes following posterior sub-Tenon injection of atracurium in the rabbit eye. METHODS This study was performed on 39 healthy white New Zealand rabbits which received sub-Tenon injection of 0.05-0.08 mg/kg atracurium diluted in 0.5 ml normal saline (N/S) in the left and 0.5 ml N/S in the right eyes. Bilateral enuclation was performed one ho...