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The effect of epidural bupivacaine on vecuronium–induced neuromuscular blockade in children
Author(s) -
TAIVAINEN T.,
MERETOJA O. A.,
ROSENBERG P. H.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
acta anaesthesiologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 107
eISSN - 1399-6576
pISSN - 0001-5172
DOI - 10.1111/j.1399-6576.1994.tb03928.x
Subject(s) - medicine , bupivacaine , anesthesia , alfentanil , midazolam , vecuronium bromide , premedication , propofol , neuromuscular blockade , fentanyl , sedation
The efTect of epidural bupivacaine on potency and duration of action of vecuronium–induced neuromuscular blockade (NMB) was evaluated in 30 general surgical paediatric patients (ASA I–II) of three to ten years of age. Premedication was midazolam 0.5 μg kg ‐1 orally (max 15 mg). In addition to general anaesthesia, 15 of the children received a lumbar epidural block with 0.5% bupivacaine 2.5 mg kg ‐1 . Anaesthesia was induced and maintained with N 2 O:o 2 (2:1), propofol and alfentanil. NMB was monitored by adductor pollicis EMG with the train–of–four stimulus every 20 sec. Thirty minutes following the epidural bupivacaine injection (mean plasma concentration 0.86 μg ml ‐1 ) or induction of anaesthesia a cumulative dose–response curve of vecuronium was established to achieve a 95% depression of the twitch response. Thereafter, NMB was allowed to recover spontaneously. ED doses of vecuronium were 19–22% greater in the control group than in the epidural group. ED^ doses were 33.8 (s.e.mean 1.3) μg kg“ 1 and 28.4 (2.2) μg kg”‘, respectively ( P <0.05). There were no differences in recovery times from NMB between control and epidural group, the recovery index (time of twitch height to recover from 25 to 75%) being 6.4 (0.4) min and 7.0 (0.9) min, respectively. However, a negative correlation was found between bupivacaine plasma concentration and an ED 50 dose of vecuronium ( P =0.01). Our results indicate that vecuronium is slightly more potent in children with bupivacaine epidural block than in children without it.