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Marked increases in heart rate associated with sevoflurane but not with halothane following suxamethonium administration in children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 August 2006

A. Rieger
Affiliation:
Department of Anaesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D-12200 Berlin, Germany
I. Haß
Affiliation:
Department of Anaesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D-12200 Berlin, Germany
H. W. Striebel
Affiliation:
Department of Anaesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D-12200 Berlin, Germany
G. Brummer
Affiliation:
Department of Anaesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D-12200 Berlin, Germany
K. Eyrich
Affiliation:
Department of Anaesthesiology and Operative Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin, Free University of Berlin, Hindenburgdamm 30, D-12200 Berlin, Germany
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Abstract

The changes in heart rate and arterial blood pressure following the administration of suxamethonium in healthy children (mean age 3.8 ± 0.3 years) during inhalational induction with either sevoflurane (n = 22) or halothane (n = 19) were studied. Heart rate 60 s following suxamethonium administration increased significantly in the sevoflurane but not in the halothane group. In the halothane group, four children required intravenous (i.v.) atropine as a result of bradycardia. None of the children in the sevoflurane group developed bradycardia following suxamethonium (P < 0.05). Values of oxygenation, ventilation and age corrected minimal alveolar concentration were comparable at all measurement times. The haemodynamic response to the administration of suxamethonium in children anaesthetized with sevoflurane seems to reflect the stimulation of the autonomic ganglia by suxamethonium whereas this positive chronotropic effect is attenuated or reversed by halothane.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
1996 European Society of Anaesthesiology

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Footnotes

This article is dedicated to Prof. Dr med. klaus Eyrich who has been Head of the Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Medicine at the University Medical Center Benjamin Franklin of the Free University of Berlin since 1978 and retired in October 1996.