Comparison of respiratory sparing effect between pancuronium and three new nondepolarizing muscle relaxants in rats

There is a large difference in sensitivity between respiratory muscles and other limb muscles. This phenomenon, known as the respiratory sparing effect (RSE), is well established withd-tubocurarine, pancuronium, and succinylcholine. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the RSE of these new relaxants, vecuronium, pipecuronium, and ORG9426.

The study was done in vivo using rats. Mechanical twitch responses of tibialis anterior muscle and diaphragm stimulated with the sciatic nerve and phrenic nerve, respectively, were recorded simultaneously to monitor neuromuscular transmission. Changes of mechanical twitch responses from both muscles were compared following the injection of four kinds of muscle relaxants (pancuronium, picuronium, recuronium, and ORG9426).

T, D (%) represents the maximum depression in tibialis anterior and diaphragm, respectively. T-D (%), which means the sensitivity difference between the two kinds of muscle, was calculated by subtracting D from T. The T-Ds of pancuronium, pipecuronium, vecuronium, and ORG9426 were 86.0±2.6%, 81.4±1.9%, 77.7±2.1%, and 74.6±2.7%, respectively.

The results indicated that the blockade produced by each muscle relaxant was lower in the diaphragm than in the anterior tibialis muscle. T-D was significantly smaller with vecuronium or ORG9426 than with pancuronium.