European journal of anaesthesiology
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Clinical Trial Controlled Clinical Trial
Serum myoglobin following tourniquet release under anaesthesia.
Serum myoglobin concentrations were studied in 34 patients during tendon and nerve reconstruction operations that required the application of a pneumatic limb tourniquet. Seventeen patients received general anaesthesia without the use of suxamethonium, while the remaining 17 were given suxamethonium as part of the anaesthetic technique. Tourniquet times of up to 2.5 h were associated with negligible myoglobin release, but the use of suxamethonium administration resulted in a rise of serum myoglobin in some subjects, reaching a maximum of 300 micrograms litre-1 20-40 min after induction. ⋯ Three of the four patients who required a re-application of the tourniquet (after a short reperfusion time) had rises of serum myoglobin up to 120 micrograms litre-1 following the second deflation. Pneumatic tourniquets appear to cause no detectable ischaemic damage for up to 2.5 h, with or without prior use of suxamethonium. Re-application after only a short period of reperfusion may be inadvisable.
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Comparative Study
Comparison of evoked electromyography and mechanical activity during vecuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade.
The relationship of compound electromyography to mechanical myography was investigated in 20 patients given vecuronium in a dose of 0.1 mg kg-1. Mechanical response was affected less quickly and recovered faster than the electrical response. ⋯ Moreover, during recovery the mechanical responses became greater than the control value in all patients. This was also reflected in the statistically significant difference (P less than 0.05) of the regression lines relating tension and electromyography (TI as well as train-of-four ratio) between onset of, and recovery from, neuromuscular block.