Pretreatment with vecuronium as a prophylactic against post-suxamethonium muscle pain. Comparison with other non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs.

One hundred and ninety-eight patients undergoing minor surgery were assessed for evidence of post-suxamethonium muscle pain on the 1st and 2nd days following surgery. Patients were allocated to nine groups and were given one of four non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs (vecuronium, gallamine, tubocurarine or pancuronium) 1 or 2 min before the administration of suxamethonium. A control group received an inert medication. Forty-one per cent of patients receiving no pretreatment experienced muscle pain. This frequency was decreased to around 20% following pretreatment. In general, the frequency of pain was less in the groups receiving pretreatment at 1 min, but the difference was not significant. The groups receiving vecuronium before suxamethonium had the lowest overall frequency of pain over the 2 days (19%), although this was not significantly different from other pretreatments.