Accelerated recovery from combined atracurium-vecuronium neuromuscular block

Patients given combinations of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking drugs have been reported to recover from neuromuscular block more rapidly than patients given a single drug. This study was designed to assess if this phenomenon occurred with the combination of atracurium and vecuronium. During nitrous oxide-fentanyl anaesthesia, 30 adult patients were allocated randomly to receive atracurium 0.5 mg kg-1, vecuronium 0.1 mg kg-1, or a combination of atracurium 0.125 mg kg-1 + vecuronium 0.025 mg kg-1. All patients had 100% neuromuscular block, and times to block onset did not differ significantly between the three groups. Recovery to 10, 25, 50 and 90% of control twitch height was significantly faster in the group receiving the combination of drugs.