• Manuel Martin-Flores, Monique D Paré, Emily A Tomak, Morgan L Corn, and Luis Campoy.
• Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853., Department of Animal Science, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853.
• Am. J. Vet. Res. 2015 Apr 1;76(4):302-7.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the potency of vecuronium and duration of vecuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade in dogs with centronuclear myopathy (CNM).Animals6 Labrador Retrievers with autosomal-recessive CNM and 5 age- and weight-matched control dogs.ProceduresDogs were anesthetized on 2 occasions (1-week interval) with propofol, dexmedetomidine, and isoflurane. Neuromuscular function was monitored with acceleromyography and train-of-four (TOF) stimulation. In an initial experiment, potency of vecuronium was evaluated by a cumulative-dose method, where 2 submaximal doses of vecuronium (10 μg/kg each) were administered IV sequentially. For the TOF's first twitch (T1), baseline twitch amplitude and maximal posttreatment depression of twitch amplitude were measured. In the second experiment, dogs received vecuronium (50 μg/kg, IV) and the time of spontaneous recovery to a TOF ratio (ie, amplitude of TOF's fourth twitch divided by amplitude of T1) ≥ 0.9 and recovery index (interval between return of T1 amplitude to 25% and 75% of baseline) were measured.ResultsDepression of T1 after each submaximal dose of vecuronium was not different between groups. Median time to a TOF ratio ≥ 0.9 was 76.7 minutes (interquartile range [IQR; 25th to 75th percentile], 66.7 to 99.4 minutes) for dogs with CNM and 75.0 minutes (IQR, 47.8 to 96.5 minutes) for controls. Median recovery index was 18.0 minutes (IQR, 9.7 to 23.5 minutes) for dogs with CNM and 20.2 minutes (IQR, 8 to 25.1 minutes) for controls.Conclusions And Clinical RelevanceFor the study dogs, neither potency nor duration of vecuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade was altered by CNM. Vecuronium can be used to induce neuromuscular blockade in dogs with autosomal-recessive CNM.

25 keywords...

hide…