New muscle relaxants.

There are many new neuromuscular blocking drugs now going through the clinical trials required before new drugs can be used clinically on a routine basis. It is safe to say that within the next five years the muscle relaxants now in common use will be replaced by new and more "ideal" muscle relaxants. This review has attempted to define for the practicing anesthesiologist the goals of muscle relaxant research and the drugs that have been developed from that research. It is hoped that some familiarity with these drugs before they become widely available may hasten their extensive use by practitioner in the interest of better anesthetic patient care.