A case report is presented in which an asthmatic patient appears to have developed bronchospasm after being given pancuronium. A review of the literature indicates that this agent is the least likely of muscle relaxants in clinical use to provoke such a response, and that no such case has hitherto been reported. It is suggested that caution should be exercised even when pancuronium is used in a...

Status asthmaticus is a life-threatening form of reactive airway disease, refractory to initial control with ordinary medical measures, sometimes requiring mechanical ventilatory assistance. In this report, we describe a patient whose bronchospasm could not be controlled with conventional measures, with severe respiratory acidosis (PaCO2 consistently > 100 mm Hg), who was successfully supported...