Nursing Pharmacology Clinical Case:  Anesthesia
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Clinical Case

  • A 41 year-old man was admitted to the hospital with acute abdominal pain, which was diagnosed as a perforated duodenal ulcer.

  • Laparotomy was scheduled under general anesthesia. Induction was with thiopental, and vecuronium (a neuromuscular-blocking drug) was given in a dose of 0.05 mg/kg prior to intubation.

  • Anesthesia was maintained with nitrous oxide-isoflurane mixture, and two subsequent boluses of vecuronium 0.02 mg/kg were required to maintain 95% twitch height depression.

  • At the close of the surgical procedure, reversal of their muscular blockade was required.



  • Case author: Hugh S. Mathewson, M.D., Professor Emeritus, School of Allied Health, Department of Nurse Anesthesia, University of Kansas Medical Center case editor: Michael Gordon, Ph.D. Associate Professor, University of Kansas Medical Center