Effect of neostigmine at different levels of mivacurium‐induced neuromuscular blockade

Abstract

The effectiveness of neostigmine 40 μg/kg for antagonism of two different levels of neuromuscular blockade, induced by a bolus dose of mivacurium 0.15 mg/kg, was studied in 45 patients. The patients were anaesthetized with thiopentone, fentanyl, nitrous oxide in oxygen, and enflurane. Neostigmine was administered at either 10% recovery of the twitch height (TH10) at the adductor pollicis muscle (n=14) or upon reappearance of the first response at the orbicularis oculi muscle (OO1) after train‐of‐four (TOF) stimulation (n= 16), the latter representing a deeper degree of neuromuscular blockade. Fifteen of the 45 patients did not receive neostigmine (control group). Neostigmine administration at OO1 rather than at TH10 at the adductor pollicis muscle caused reversal of neuromuscular blockade to occur 8 min earlier and shortened the time to reach 25% recovery of the twitch height (TH25) at the adductor pollicis muscle by about 5 min, compared with the control group. However, the time needed to reach a T4/T1 ratio ≥0.8 was similar in both the early and late neostigmine administration groups, being 9 min faster than in the control group. It can be concluded that there is no advantage in administering neostigmine at profound neuromuscular blockade to achieve clinically adequate recovery (T4/T1 ratio ≥0.8). However, the time between injection of mivacurium and TH25 may be shortened by using neostigmine at profound neuromuscular blockade, a procedure which may be useful in case of unpredictably difficult intubation, since diaphragmatic movements usually reappear at TH25.

2023 American Society of Anesthesiologists Practice Guidelines for Monitoring and Antagonism of Neuromuscular Blockade: A Report by the American Society of Anesthesiologists Task Force on Neuromuscular Blockade

“…The body of evidence enrolling adults included 191 studies (133 randomized controlled trials, 4,59–90,92,95,98–104,110–114,118–127,132–141,145–148,155–157,163,173–181,206–254 11 nonrandomized trials, 17,128,142,182–184,191,255–258 45 cohort studies, 15,42,86,91,93,94,96,97,105–109,116,117,129–131,143,144,186–190,227,259–277 and 2 before–after designs 115,168 ) evaluating efficacy and safety of antagonist drugs for neuromuscular blockade. The randomized controlled trials enrolling only adults had a median of 88 participants (range, 16 to 350).…”