A case of suicide by intravenous injection of pancuronium.

This report details a suicide by pancuronium bromide injection by a 31-year old female anesthesiologist. Pancuronium bromide was identified in the blood and brain by means of ion-pair extraction followed by thin-layer chromatography, spectrophotometry and electrospray ionization/tandem mass spectrometry. After this positive identification, the levels of pancuronium were carefully quantified by spectrophotometry: 1.05 mg/ml in the blood and 0.51 mg/g in the brain. The cause of death was judged to be asphyxia due to respiratory muscle paralysis caused by pancuronium.