Rocuronium Can Trigger a Hypertensive Crisis in a Patient With Paraganglioma: A Case Report

We present a case of rocuronium-induced hypertensive crises that occurred twice in a patient with paraganglioma. An 86-year-old woman was first scheduled for laminectomy for lumbar spinal stenosis. Five minutes after intravenous induction of anesthesia using fentanyl, propofol, rocuronium, and remifentanil, the patient's blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) suddenly increased with no stimuli. Surgery was postponed because the patient was suspected of having pheochromocytoma. After that, paraganglioma was diagnosed, and surgery for removal of the paraganglioma was scheduled after the commencement of alpha-blocker therapy. The patient's hemodynamic parameters remained stable when anesthesia was induced with an infusion of remimazolam. Subsequently, immediately after rocuronium was administered as an intravenous bolus, the patient's arterial BP and HR increased, and plasma concentrations of noradrenaline and rocuronium had markedly increased. Ten minutes after the administration of rocuronium, the patient's BP and HR gradually and fully recovered without any intervention. The plasma concentrations of both noradrenaline and rocuronium also concurrently decreased. We conclude that simultaneous increases in BP, HR, and plasma concentration of noradrenaline revealed a direct correlation with rocuronium.