Anesthesia in neuromuscular diseases

Neuromuscular diseases raise a lot of anesthesia related problems. The first is the hitherto unknown disease discovered by an unexpected adverse reaction to anesthetics or/and muscle relaxants up to a life-threatening incident. A second problem is the probable, suspected or proven disposition to malignant hyperthermia in patients with other neuromuscular diseases. Furthermore, severe rhabdomyolysis can be induced in myopathic muscle by the application of succinylcholine alone or in combination with inhalational anesthetics resulting in hyperkalemia, myoglobinuria and CK-elevation, sometimes followed by cardiac arrest. Cardiomyopathy is a common feature in many neuromuscular diseases. All cardiodepressant agents must be avoided. Specific problems with muscle relaxants arise in myasthenia gravis and in the myotonias. In the later stages of severe neuromuscular diseases the main problem concerning anesthesia is respiratory failure. The individual risk of every patient has to be evaluated before anesthesia. Recommendations for the anesthetic management are given.