ABSTRACT
To study the effects of small amounts of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers on the muscle fasciculation, postoperative muscle pains and relaxation time by succinylcholine, three groups of patients were pretreated with vecuronium (0.01 mg/kg), pancuronium (0.015 mg/kg) and gallamine (0, 2 mg/kg) 3 minutes before succinylcholine injection, respectively and compared their results with control group-saline pretreated group. The results are as follows; 1) Intensity of muscle fasciculation deereased significantly in all groups with non-depolarizing neuromuscular blockers, and frequency had the fewest in pancuronium pretreated group than the others. 2) Intensity of postoperative muscle pains decreased significantly in groups pretreated with pancuronium and gallamine, and frequency had the fewest in gallamine pretreated group than the others. 3) Pretreatment with non-depolarzing neuromuscular blocker had no effects on the onset time of muscle relaxation of succinylcholine but recovery of muscle relaxation by succinylchoine was more rapidly occured than control group. Above results, it will be suggest that gallamine and pancuronium can be used more effectively to prevent muscle fasciculation and postoperative muscle pain without influence on succinylcholine-induced muscle relaxation.