title: Accelerated recovery from combined atracurium-vecuronium neuromuscular block.
abstract: Patients given combinations of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs have been reported to recover from neuromuscular block more rapidly than patients given a single drug. This study was designed to assess if this phenomenon occurred with the combination of atracurium and vecuronium. During nitrous oxide-fentanyl anaesthesia, 30 adult patients were allocated randomly to receive atracurium 0.5 mg kg-1, vecuronium 0.1 mg kg-1, or a combination of atracurium 0.125 mg kg-1 + vecuronium 0.025 mg kg-1. All patients had 100% neuromuscular block, and times to block onset did not differ significantly between the three groups. Recovery to 10, 25, 50 and 90% of control twitch height was significantly faster in the group receiving the combination of drugs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, University of Virginia Medical Center, Charlottesville 22908.
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Stirt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D001279:Atracurium; D006801:Humans; D009469:Neuromuscular Junction / Q000187:drug effects*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D014673:Vecuronium Bromide
chemical_list: D001279:Atracurium; D014673:Vecuronium Bromide