Background: Chronic exposure to glucocorticoids is associated with resistance to nondepolarising neuromuscular blocking agents. Therefore, we hypothesised that sugammadex-induced recovery in subjects with chronic exposure to dexamethasone was faster than that in subjects without dexamethasone exposure. Objective: To evaluate the recovery profile of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade after sugammadex administration in rats. Design: An in vivo study on rats.Setting: Asan Institute for Life Sciences, Asan Medical Center, Korea, from April 2017 to October 2017.Animals: Thirty-six male Sprague-Dawley rats.Intervention: Sprague–Dawley rats were allocated to three groups (dexamethasone group, control group, and pair-fed group) for the in vivo study. Dexamethasone group received daily intraperitoneal injections of dexamethasone 500 μg kg-1 or 0.9% saline for 15 days. On the sixteenth day, 3.5 mg kg-1 of rocuronium was administered to achieve complete neuromuscular blockade. Main outcome measures: The recovery time to a train-of-four ratio Results: There were no significant differences in the recovery time to train-of-four ratio to 0.9 among the groups (P = 0.531). The time to second twitch of train-of-four recovery that indicated the duration of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade was significantly shorter in Group D than in Groups C and P (P = 0.001). Conclusion: As previously reported, resistance to rocuronium was observed in rats with chronic exposure to dexamethasone. However, the neuromuscular recovery time after sugammadex administration was not significantly different between groups.

Background: Chronic exposure to glucocorticoids is associated with resistance to nondepolarising neuromuscular blocking agents. Therefore, we hypothesised that sugammadex-induced recovery in subjects with chronic exposure to dexamethasone was faster than that in subjects without dexamethasone exposure.Objective: To evaluate the recovery pro le of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade after sugammadex administration in rats.Design: An in vivo study on rats.