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Succinylcholine: a drug to avoid in bariatric surgery

Talar Tejirian1, Catherine E Lewis, James Conner

  • 1Department of Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Obesity Surgery
|October 8, 2008
PubMed

Succinylcholine is a paralytic agent regularly utilized in anesthesia. There are numerous adverse effects of succinylcholine ranging from mild to fatal; one such effect is succinylcholine myalgia. We report the case of a 34-year-old woman who received succinylcholine while undergoing laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass and later developed succinylcholine myalgia leading to a prolonged hospital stay and subsequent pneumonia. In the presence of suitable alternative paralytic agents, succinylcholine should be avoided in patients undergoing bariatric surgery. The use of a designated anesthesia team familiar with bariatric operations can help maximize peri-operative management and minimize complications.

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