Context: Residual neuromuscular blockade still presents despite the use of intermediate duration muscle relaxants and is a risk factor for postoperative morbidity.
Objective: To determine the incidence of incomplete postoperative neuromuscular recovery from anaesthesia in a postanaesthesia care unit.
Design: Multicentre observational study.
Setting: Public Portuguese hospitals.
Patients: Adult patients scheduled for elective surgery requiring general anaesthesia with neuromuscular blocking agents.
Main outcome measures: An independent anaesthesiologist measured neuromuscular transmission by the TOF-Watch SX acceleromyograph. Train-of-four ratios at least 0.9 and less than 0.9 were assessed as complete and incomplete neuromuscular recovery following general anaesthesia, respectively.
Results: The study population consisted of 350 patients [134 men and 216 women, mean (SD) age 54.3 (15.9) years]. Ninety-one patients had a train-of-four ratio less than 0.9 on arrival in the postanaesthesia care unit, an incidence of residual neuromuscular blockade of 26% [95% confidence interval (CI) 21 to 31%]. The most frequent neuromuscular blockers were rocuronium (44.2%) and cisatracurium (32%). A neuromuscular block reversal agent was used in 66.6% of the patients (neostigmine in 97%). The incidence of residual neuromuscular blockade in patients receiving reversal agents was 30% (95% CI 25 to 37%). There were no statistically significant differences in the occurrence of residual blockade relating to the neuromuscular blocker used, although higher percentages were observed for cisatracurium (32.4%) and vecuronium (32%) compared with atracurium (23.6%) and rocuronium (20.8%). Incomplete neuromuscular recovery was significantly more frequent among patients who had received a reversal agent (30.5 vs. 17.1%, P = 0.01). Incomplete neuromuscular recovery was more frequent in patients given propofol than in those exposed to sevoflurane (26.2 vs. 14.3%).
Conclusion: The incidence of incomplete neuromuscular recovery of 26% confirms that it is relatively frequent in the postoperative period and calls attention to the dimension of this problem in Portugal.
Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01181349.