Initial clinical experience with fazadinium bromide during anaesthesia in Nigerians

Fazadinium Bromide (Fazadon, AH 8165), a non depolarising muscle relaxant, was injected into one hundred unpremedicated Nigerian patients requiring endotracheal intubation and prolonged skeletal muscle relaxation. The dose of Fazadon used was 1.5 mg per kg. body weight. Endotracheal intubation was possible in all the patients within thirty seconds of the intravenous injection of Fazadon. The initial single dose of the drug provided muscle relaxation for an average of forty minutes without the addition of any volatile anaesthetic agent. Arterial blood pressure was well maintained, but there was a mean increase in pulse rate of 20 beats per minute. Return of skeletal muscle activity was observed within one minute of the injection of neostigmine, in all but one patient.