title: Prospective randomised double-blind comparative study of rocuronium and pancuronium in adult patients scheduled for elective 'fast-track' cardiac surgery involving hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass.
abstract: The majority of cardiac anaesthetists in the UK use pancuronium for fast-track cardiac surgery. We compared the duration of action of pancuronium and rocuronium in patients undergoing fast-track hypothermic cardiopulmonary bypass and cardiac surgery. We determined whether patients would have had residual neuromuscular blockade at extubation. Twenty patients were randomly allocated to receive either pancuronium 0.1 mg x kg(-1) or rocuronium 1 mg x kg(-1). Neuromuscular function was assessed by acceleromyography; spontaneous recovery was evaluated by the train-of-four ratio measured at the adductor pollicis longus muscle. Median times to recover train-of-four ratio of 0.9 were 3 h 38 min for rocuronium and 7 h 52 min for pancuronium. The median difference in recovery times was 4 h 15 min (95% CI 2 h 30 min to 6 h 20 min; p = 0.0003 by Mann-Whitney test). None of the patients in the rocuronium group and seven of 10 patients in the pancuronium group had their extubations delayed because of residual neuromuscular blockade. Unless fast-track patients have neuromuscular function assessed before extubation, pancuronium should not be used.
authors.affiliation: Shackleton Department of Anaesthetics, Southampton General Hospital, UK.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Strike
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000732:Androstanols; D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D001831:Body Temperature; D002315:Cardiopulmonary Bypass / Q000379:methods*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007036:Hypothermia, Induced; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019148:Neuromuscular Blockade; D003473:Neuromuscular Nondepolarizing Agents; D010197:Pancuronium; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000077123:Rocuronium
chemical_list: D000732:Androstanols; D003473:Neuromuscular Nondepolarizing Agents; D010197:Pancuronium; D000077123:Rocuronium