Comparison of acceleromyography and electromyography in vecuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade with xenon or sevoflurane anesthesia.

STUDY OBJECTIVES

To compare acceleromyography (AMG) and electromyography (EMG) with xenon or sevoflurane anesthesia during vecuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade.

DESIGN

Prospective randomized study.

SETTING

University hospital.

PATIENTS

28 ASA physical status I and II adult patients presenting for elective surgery.

INTERVENTIONS

Patients received vecuronium for neuromuscular blockade and either xenon (n = 11) or sevoflurane (n = 17) anesthesia.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

The first twitch depression, which was expressed as a ratio of the first twitch to that obtained before the blocking drug was administered (T1/Tc), was measured simultaneously by AMG and EMG. T1/Tc as measured by AMG consistently demonstrated greater depression than that by EMG during recovery. The limits of agreement were unacceptably wide, suggesting that T1/Tc obtained by AMG is a poor predictor of T1/Tc as measured by EMG. Such relations were not affected by the anesthetic (xenon or sevoflurane) used.

CONCLUSION

AMG and EMG-cannot be used interchangeably with either xenon or sevoflurane anesthesia.