The effect of galanthamine hydrobromide on plasma ACTH in patients undergoing anaesthesia and surgery

The effects of two anticholinesterases, galanthamine and neostigmine, on ACTH and, in some cases, cortisol were compared in 16 patients undergoing relaxant anaesthesia and surgery for varicose veins. The procedures produced increases both in ACTH and cortisol. Following administration of the study drugs to reverse the non-depolarising neuromuscular block, a statistically significant elevation of ACTH occurred in those patients who received galanthamine. It was concluded, therefore, that the rise in plasma cortisol is ACTH-dependent and not due to a peripheral cholinergic mechanism.