Tracheal intubation condition--a comparison between one minute after rocuronium alone, one minute after rocuronium combined with atracurium and one minute after atracurium with rocuronium at one minute priming interval.

Background: Rocuronium, a monoquaternary steroid analogue of vecuronium, is designed to provide a rapid onset of action. Experimentally, it has been shown that two non-depolarizing neuromuscular relaxants administered together can produce either a neuromuscular block of a size expected to be the sum of the individual doses (additive effect) or a larger neuromuscular block (synergistic effect). Experimental observations have suggested that during onset rocuronium acts synergistically with other nondepolarizing agents, but that at a steady state the combined action is additive.

Methods: To investigate whether rocuronium can speed up the onset of atracurium for intubation, 120 patients who consented to receive elective surgery requiring tracheal intubation were randomly assigned to 3 equally divided groups to receive one of the following three different combinations of muscle relaxants: twice ED95 of rocuronium (0.6 mg/kg group 1), an equipotent mixture of ED95 of rocuronium and atracurium (0.3 mg/kg and 0.25 mg/kg respectively, group 2), and rocuronium 0.1 mg/kg to prime atracurium 0.42 mg/kg at 1 min interval. Intubation conditions were assessed 1 minute after intravenous muscle relaxant injection, and scored as good, acceptable and poor based on four clinical evaluators: the ease of laryngoscopy (score of 1-3), the relaxation of vocal cord (1-3), the degree of coughing (1-3), and movement of extremity (1-3). Adding up together, intubation condition that scored 4-5 was considered to be good, 6-7 acceptable, and 8-12 poor.

Results: The conditions produced in the rocuronium and the mixture groups were similar and both were moderately better than those of the priming group. Good intubation conditions were achieved in 58% patients of the rocuronium group, 63% of the mixture group and 43% of the priming group. By Pearson Chi-square test, the comparisons did not show statistical significance between groups.

Conclusions: Statistically, rocuronium alone, mixture of equipotent atracurium and rocuronium, and using rocuronium to prime atracurium all provided similar onset for satisfactory intubation.