A. Borgeat et D. Kwiatkowski, SPONTANEOUS MOVEMENTS ASSOCIATED WITH ROCURONIUM - IS PAIN ON INJECTION THE CAUSE, British Journal of Anaesthesia, 79(3), 1997, pp. 382-383
Spontaneous movements are sometimes observed of the arm into which roc
uronium is administered. In order to assess a possible relationship be
tween these movements and pain, we injected in 10 awake, ASA I patient
s, in a double-blind manner, both rocuronium 1 ml (10 mg) and 0.9% NaC
l 1 ml (placebo), with a 30-s interval in between. None of the patient
s receiving placebo complained of pain, but eight of 10 patients repor
ted a strong burning pain during injection of rocuronium with brisk fl
exion of the elbow and wrist, similar to those observed in patients af
ter induction of anaesthesia. A second injection of rocuronium did not
produce such pain and no movements were observed. We conclude that in
jection of rocuronium is associated with severe, burning pain of short
duration, responsible for the spontaneous movements in the arm observ
ed after induction of anaesthesia.