The quest for the origin and prevention of postoperative myalgia following succinylcholine : new insights in an old problem

Muscle relaxants are common drugs in anaesthetics and they are often administered during general narcosis. The popular muscle relaxant succinylcholine is mostly used in short interventions and rush surgery. However, succinylcholine has various side-effects, such as muscular pain after surgery. The origin of that postoperative muscular pain is still not known. The study was meant to gain more insight in the causes, particularly a possible inflammation reaction. The results show that an inflammation reaction does not significantly contribute to the origin. Furthermore, various preventive measures were studied to prevent muscular pain. There are various medicamental possibilities for efficiently preventing the muscular pain, among others by pre-treatment with certain painkillers, local anaesthetics and other muscle relaxants. Unfortunately, the pre-treatment appears not to be without risk for certain side-effects (for example pain during injection), which requires special attention from the practising doctor.