Kim_2016_J.Lifestyle.Med_6_43

Myasthenia gravis causes weakness and fatigue of the skeletal muscles, including respiratory muscles. When immobile surgical fields are needed, neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBAs) are often administered to block muscle activity, leading to an immobile surgical field and respiratory arrest. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are administered to reverse the muscle block, promoting spontaneous respiration for patient recovery. If immobile surgical fields are required in myasthenic patient operations, NMBAs should be administered. However, recovery from NMBAs using acetylcholinesterase inhibitors might be delayed in myasthenic patients due to their intake of medicines that already inhibit cholinesterase, resulting in a delay in spontaneous respiration. Sugammadex is a recently introduced medicine that reverses muscle blocks through a different mechanism from acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and can be administered to facilitate the return of spontaneous respiration in myasthenic patients. Our experience of the rapid return to spontaneous respiration of a myasthenic patient with Sugammadex is reported in this paper.