[The effect of palonosetron on rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement]

Rocuronium causes pain and withdrawal movement during induction of anesthesia. In this study, palonosetron was investigated to have analgesic effect on the reduction of rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement.

120 patients were randomly assigned to one of three groups to receive either saline, lidocaine 20mg, or palonosetron 0.075mg with a tourniquet applied two minutes before thiopental sodium (5mg.kg^-1) was given intravenously. After loss of consciousness, rocuronium (0.6mg.kg^-1) was injected and the withdrawal movement was estimated by 4-point scale in a double-blind manner.

The overall incidence of rocuronium withdrawal movement was 50% with lidocaine (p=0.038), 38% with palonosetron (p=0.006) compared with 75% for saline. The incidence of no pain to mild pain was significantly lower in the lidocaine and palonosetron groups (85% and 92% respectively) than in the saline group (58%). However, there was no significant difference in withdrawal movement between the lidocaine and palonosetron groups. There was no severe movement with palonosetron.

Pretreatment of palonosetron with venous occlusion may attenuate rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement as effective as the use of lidocaine. It suggested that peripheral action of palonosetron was effective to reduce rocuronium-induced withdrawal movement.