The use of neuromuscular blocking agents for thymectomy in myasthenia gravis

摘要

As the senior author of two published case reports on anaesthesia for thymectomy in myasthenic dogs I read the paper by Shilo et al. (2011) with particular interest. Our two case reports described the use of atracurium and vecuronium as part of the anaesthetic technique in dogs (Jones & Sharp 1985; Jones et al. 1988). We clearly demonstrated that the two newer muscle relaxant drugs, as they were at that time, could be used effectively and safely in myasthenic dogs with two important provisos. Firstly only one-sixth to one- ?fth of the normal recommended dose should be administered initially, and secondly, and very importantly, that neuromuscular transmission should be monitored throughout the procedure.