The effects of muscle relaxants other than muscular relaxation / W.D.M. Paton.

  • Paton, William D. M
Date:
[1959?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The effects of muscle relaxants other than muscular relaxation / W.D.M. Paton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    July-August 1959 diseased men? Ultimately, of course, this as¬ sessment must be a clinical one. But in the preliminary stages, at least, it is useful to pay attention to two points. First, any action dis¬ played by a drug, even if only in a particular species, may turn up in human practice. Thus the toxicity of oxygen at pressures below one atmosphere, especially marked in rats, has proved to have a human correlate; the excitant action of morphine in the cat likewise fore¬ shadows a similar action in a few humans, contrasted with its normal “sedative” action. Secondly, it is sometimes possible, when a side- action by a drug is the therapeutic action of some other recognized drug, to assess the likeli¬ hood of the side-action by considering the known variations in response to the latter drug: thus the ganglion-blocking action of d-tubo- curarine can be interpreted in the light of our experience with hexamethonium. Since as low a dose of hexamethonium as 1 mg. has been known to be effective in a hypertensive patient, clearly d-tubocurarine in normal dos¬ age (equivalent perhaps to 5 mg. of hexa¬ methonium) must sometimes be expected to do the same. If this argument is admitted, then it would be reasonable for the clinician to seek from the pharmacologist both an accurate identification of all the significant side-actions of a new drug and also, where possible, an estimate of the intensity of those side-actions in terms of fa¬ miliar drugs. A subsequent quantitative as¬ sessment of the side-actions in clinical practice then becomes of interest to the pharmacologist for the light it throws on human responses as compared with those of animals. Although the close study of side-actions is a less attractive and usually a less important side of therapeu¬ tics than, say, the attempt to discover new drugs or to explain the actions of familiar but mysterious ones, there can be little doubt that further attention to them would bring about a valuable refinement in anaesthetic technique. REFERENCES 1. Foldes, F. F.: Muscle Relaxants in Anaes¬ thesiology. Charles C Thomas, Publisher, Springfield, Illinois, 1957. 2. Paton, W. D. M., and Zaimis, E. J.: Methonium compounds, Pharmacol. Rev. 4: 219, 1952. 3. Churchill-Davidson, H. C., and Richardson, A. T.: Decamethonium iodide (CIO); some observations on its action using electromyog¬ raphy, Proc. Roy. Soc. Med. 45: 179, 1952. 4. Masland, R. L., and Wigton, R. S.: Nerve ac¬ tivity accompanying fasciculations produced by prostigmine, J. Neurophysiol. 3: 269, 1940. 5. Granit, R., Skogland, S., and Thesleff, S.: Ac¬ tivation of muscle spindles by succinylcholine and decamethonium. Effects of curare, Acta physiol, scandinav. 28: 134, 1953. 6. Morris, D. D. B., and Dunn, C. H.: Suxa¬ methonium chloride administration and post¬ operative muscle pain, Brit. M. J. 1: 383, 1957. 7. Churchill-Davidson, H. C.: Suxamethonium (succinylcholine) chloride and muscle pains, Brit. M. J. 1: 74, 1954. 8. Lincoff, H. A., and others: Effect of succinyl¬ choline on intraocular pressure, Am. J. Opthal. 40: 501, 1955. 9. Marsh, D. F., Herring, D. A., and Sleeth, C. K.: Curariform activity of N-methyloxyacanthine, J. Pharmacol. & Exper. Therap. 95: 100, 1949. 10. Riker, W. F., and Wescoe, W. C.: Pharmacol¬ ogy of Flaxedil with observations on certain analogues, Ann. New York Acad. Sc. 54: 373, 1951. 11. Zaimis, E. J.: Action of decamethonium on nor¬ mal and denervated mammalian muscle, J. Physiol. 112: 176, 1951. 12. Guyton, A. C., and Reeder, R. C.: Quantita¬ tive studies on autonomic actions of curare, J. Pharmacol. 98: 188, 1950. 13. Douglas, W. W.: Is there chemical transmis¬ sion at chemoreceptors? Pharmacol. Rev. 6: 81, 1954. 14. Lorente de No, R., and Laporte, Y.: Synaptic transmission in sympathetic ganglion, J. Cell. & Comp. Physiol. 35: suppl. 2, 9, 1950. 15. Eccles, R. M.: Responses of isolated curarized sympathetic ganglia, J. Physiol. 117: 196, 1952. 16. Hodgkin, H. L., and Keynes, R. D.: Experi¬ ments on injection of substances into squid giant axons by means of microsyringe, J. Physiol. 131: 592, 1956. 17. Smith, S. M., Brown, H. O., Toman, J. E. P., and Goodman, L.: Lack of cerebral effects of d-tubocurarine, Anesthesiology 8: 1, 1947. 18. Eccles, J. C., Eccles, R. M., and Fatt, P.: Pharmacological investigations on central synapse operated by acetylcholine, J. Physiol. 131: 154, 1956. 19. Burgen, A. S. V., and Chipman, L. M.: Loca¬ tion of cholinesterase in central nervous sys¬ tem, Quart. J. Exper. Physiol., 37: 61, 1952. 20. Feldberg, W., Malcolm, J. L., and Sherwood, S. L.: Some effects of tubocurarine on elec¬ trical activity of cat’s brain, J. Physiol. 132: 130, 1956.