Malignant hyperthermia susceptibility remains the commonest cause of death owing to general anaesthesia. This is despite the availability of presymptomatic testing, admittedly by a highly invasive method, and a recognised treatment for implementation immediately a patient shows signs of developing a crisis. Recently the finding of linkage to markers from chromosome 19q13.1-13.2 and the identifi...

BACKGROUND We report two cases of brain stem hemorrhage characterized by severe hyperthermia, rhabdomyolysis, acute renal failure, and a rapidly fatal course. METHODS A 55-year-old man and a 65-year-old man were admitted with coma-producing brain stem hemorrhage accompanied by hyperthermia. Both underwent ventricular drainage. RESULTS Within 1 day of onset, both patients developed hyperther...

Introduction: Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a rare, potentially fatal genetic disorder characterized by increased cellular metabolism of skeletal muscle in response to succinylcholine and certain inhalational anesthetics. The Malignant Hyperthermia Association of the United States (MHAUS) has established guidelines for the perioperative management of MH-susceptible patients to minimize their r...

Because both Rhodamine 123 (R123) and hyperthermia have been shown to be cytotoxic, we examined their effect, independently and in combination, on five different human malignant cell lines in vitro and on cultured melanoma cells grown intradermally in nude mice. The cell lines examined include two human melanomas, UCLA-SO-M14 and UCLA-SO-M21, the colon cancer cell line HT29, the human lung canc...

BACKGROUND Patients with muscular dystrophy have been reported to experience a variety of life-threatening complications during and after general anesthesia. We performed a systematic analysis to define the spectrum of anesthetic-related complications in patients with muscular dystrophy, with an emphasis on malignant hyperthermia susceptibility. METHODS A literature search was undertaken usin...

Sir,—Humphrey, Downing and Brock-Utne (1980) are less than accurate in describing the destiny of expiration switched to inspiration in the Johannesburg Circuit. They vaguely refer to experimental evidence gathered "while studying a similar system"—evidence which simply does not tally with known pharmacokinetic principles. With a fresh gas inflow of 70mlkg~' min"' in a patient weighing 65 kg, th...