Comparison of recovery following rapacuronium, with and without neostigmine, and succinylcholine

The neuromuscular blocking effects of a single dose of rapacuronium 1.5 mg.kg −1 with or without reversal with neostigmine have been examined in the present study and compared with a dose of succinylcholine 1.0 mg.kg −1 . Neuromuscular block was measured mechanomyographically using train‐of‐four stimulation. Complete block occurred within 1 min with both agents. Twenty‐five per cent recovery of the first response of the train‐of‐four occurred in a median [range] time of 7.6 [5.7–11.3] min in the succinylcholine group and in 14.2 [8.8–23.6] and 15.1 [9.6–23.4] min in the rapacuronium groups with and without neostigmine reversal, respectively. Spontaneous recovery to a train‐of‐four ratio of 0.8 took 33.4 [20.0–79.0] min with rapacuronium but this was reduced to about 21.2 [13.9–33.7] min when neostigmine was administered at 25% recovery of first twitch of the train‐of‐four.