A clinical study into the possible intrinsic bradycardic activity of vecuronium

Forty female patients received a standardised anaesthetic technique with thiopentone sodium and enflurane. Half of the patients received, under double-blind conditions, either physiological saline or glycopyrronium before induction of anaesthesia; 10 minutes after induction of anaesthesia, all patients received vecuronium 0.1 mg/kg. A further 10 patients received neither glycopyrronium nor vecuronium. The results show that vecuronium per se does not produce a decrease in heart rate.