Suxamethonium muscle pains and pregnancy

Abstract

The incidence of apparently suxamethonium-induced muscle pains experienced on the first postoperative day, among a series of 1,962 patients, has been analyzed. Each patient had received suxamethonium 100 mg at induction of anaesthesia, and was subsequently given the drug by infusion. The overall incidence of muscle pain was 2 per cent (only three patients reported severe pain). The incidence among pregnant patients was half of that among non-pregnant women of child-bearing age. Patients who had been in the lithotomy position were three times more likely to develop muscle pains than were those who had been supine throughout operation. Some implications of these data are discussed with reference to the possible influence of progesterone. © 1971 John Sherratt and Son Ltd.