MASSETER SPASM AFTER SUXAMETHONIUM

Suxamethonium spasm. A differential diagnostic conundrum.

Spasm of muscle in association with suxamethonium is not uncommon. As an accepted early sign of malignant hyperpyrexia (MH), patients have been referred for MH screening who have shown only this abnormality. Case histories of 277 probands have been analysed and grouped according to final diagnosis, depending on results of muscle biopsy and in vitro screening. When muscle spasm is induced with s...

Masseteric muscle spasm as a normal response to suxamethonium.

The myotonic response of the masseter muscles following various doses of suxamethonium was measured using a unique myotonometer in 50 apparently healthy patients, the majority of whom showed a myotonic response which lasted less than 100 s. A maximum increase in masseter tone was found to be greater than 1 kg in five patients, and 12 patients developed a maximum tone of greater than 500 g. An i...

Succinylcholine-triggerred "masseter spasm" may be a variant normal response.

Anaesthetists' nightmare: masseter spasm after induction in an undiagnosed case of myotonia congenita.

We report an undiagnosed case of myotonia congenita in a 24-year-old previously healthy primigravida, who developed life threatening masseter spasm following a standard dose of intravenous suxamethonium for induction of anaesthesia. Neither the patient nor the anaesthetist was aware of the diagnosis before this potentially lethal complication occurred.

Muscle pains after intramuscular suxamethonium chloride.

The use of suxamethonium chloride by intramuscular injection as a short acting muscle relaxant for endotracheal intubation is described. The incidence and severity of postoperative muscle pains in this group of 94 patients is compared with the results of another group (of 112 patients) in which the drug was given intravenously. The incidence of pains was similar in the two groups (26.6 and 28.6...