COMPARISON BETWEEN THE CONTINUOUS INFUSION OF VECURONIUM AND THE INTERMITTENT ADMINISTRATION OF PANCURONIUM AND VECURONIUM

The neuromuscular blocking effects of repeated bolus injectionsof pancuronium, or vecuronium, and of the continuous infusionof vecuronium have been compared in 36 patients by means ofevoked twitch tension Groups I and II received a loading dose(0.075 mg kg^–1) of pancuronium or vecuronium, respectively,followed by 0.015-mg kg^–1 maintenance doses when twitchtension had recovered to 25%. Group III received a 0.075-mgkg^–1 loading dose of vecuronium plus a continuous infusion(commenced simultaneously) delivering 0.075 mg kg^–1 h^–1.With repeated injections of pancuronium (group I) or vecuronium(group II), the durations of blockade to 25% recovery were 64and 25 min, respectively. Maintenance doses had to be injectedevery 42 min with pancuronium and every 12 min with vecuronium.The recovery times from 25% to 75% of control twitch tensionwere 44 v. 12 min. The continuous infusion of vecuronium (groupIII) produced consistent neuromuscular blockade at an averagelevel of 87% twitch depression. The times from the end of infusionto 25%, and from 25% to 75%, recovery averaged 20 and 26 min,respectively. These values did not correlate with the totaldose of vecuronium infused. For clinical practice, the suggestedloading dose is 1.5 times the ED₉₀ (= 0.07 mg kg^–1) followedby an infusion of the same dose per hour. The infusion shouldbe started within 10 min of the injection of the loading dose.