Dose‐responses for edrophonium during antagonism of vecuronium block in young and older adult patients

Abstract

The dose‐response relationship for edrophonium during antagonism of vecuronium‐induced neuromuscular blockade was studied in two groups of adult patients of mean (SD) age 35(10.0) years (n = 42) and 77 (5.4) years (n = 42) respectively. Neuromuscular block was monitored by recording the force of contraction of the adductor pollicis muscle following train‐of‐four stimulation. Six patients in each age group received 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0, or 1.5mg.kg‐1 of edrophonium, or normal saline at 10% recovery of T1 (first response in the train‐of‐four) after a single dose of vecuronium 0.08mg.kg‐1. The train‐of‐four ratios were recorded continuously over the next 10 min and the values at 1 min intervals from 5min onwards were used to construct the dose‐response curves. The dose‐response curves showed no significant difference between the two age groups except at 10 min. The estimated dose of edrophonium required for attaining a train‐of‐four ratio of 0. 7 at 10 min was 0.9 and 1.3 mg.kg‐1 in the younger and older groups, respectively (p < 0.05). Copyright © 1995, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved