Incidence, risk factors, and consequences of residual neuromuscular block in the United States: The prospective, observational, multicenter RECITE-US study.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-2019

Publication Title

Journal of clinical anesthesia

Abstract

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence burden and associated risk factors of residual neuromuscular block (rNMB) during routine U.S. hospital care.

DESIGN: Blinded multicenter cohort study.

SETTING: Operating and recovery rooms of ten community and academic U.S. hospitals.

PATIENTS: Two-hundred fifty-five adults, ASA PS 1-3, underwent elective abdominal surgery with general anesthesia and ≥1 dose of non-depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agent (NMBA) for endotracheal intubation and/or maintenance of NMB between August 2012 and April 2013.

INTERVENTIONS: TOF measurements using acceleromyography were performed on patients already receiving routine anesthetic care for elective open or laparoscopic abdominal surgery. Measurements allowed assessment of the presence of residual neuromuscular block (rNMB), defined as a train-of-four (TOF) ratio

MAIN RESULTS: Most of the study population, 64.7% (n = 165) had rNMB (TOF ratio < 0.9), among them, 31.0% with TOF ratio

CONCLUSIONS: Assessing TOF ratios blinded to the care team, we found that the majority of patients (64.7%) in this study had rNMB at tracheal extubation, despite neostigmine administration and qualitative peripheral nerve stimulation used for routine clinical care. Qualitative neuromuscular monitoring and clinical judgement often fails to detect rNMB after neostigmine reversal with potential severe consequences to the patient. Our data suggests that clinical care could be improved by considering quantitative neuromuscular monitoring for routine care.

Volume

55

First Page

33

Last Page

41

DOI

10.1016/j.jclinane.2018.12.042

ISSN

1873-4529

PubMed ID

30594097

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS