Large animal
Martina Mosing (Ini) Dr. Med Vet, Dip ECVAA, MRCVS
November 2009 Large Animal Update
Neuromuscular blocking agents in horses
Neuromuscular blocking agents (NMBA) are currently not widely used in equine anaesthesia. Besides financial considerations, the necessary devices such as an equine ventilator and a nerve stimulator to monitor the depth of the neuromuscular block are major restrictors to daily clinical use. Even if these devices are available neuromuscular block (NMB) is not used in day-to-day cases. Many anaesthetists are afraid of the possible residual relaxation during the recovery period and a possible increase in the complication rate in the recovery period, which is already risky period of anaesthesia.
This newsletter aims to review the indications for muscle relaxation in horses and summarise the literature on commonly used neuromuscular blocking agents and give some future outlook and personal experience of the author.
The focus will be on the non-depolarising muscle relaxants:
• Atracurium
• Pancuronium
• Vecuronium
• Rocuronium
And their reversal using
• Edrophonium
• Neostigmine
• Sugammadex
NMBA should never be used without concurrent monitoring of NMB. One of the future newsletters will focus on monitoring of NMB in equine anaesthesia and this will therefore not be further discussed at this point.
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Previous newsletters
PIVA in horses (August 2008): To download the article log into the members only section.
Analgesia and pain management in horses (April 2008): To download the abstracts log in to the members only section.
