Prolonged Succinylcholine Apnea -- A rare case report

Abstract

Prolonged apnea after single dose of succinylcholine is not a very rare entity. This may be attributed to psuedocholinesterase (PChE) enzyme deficiency or to the presence of atypical PChE . In case of PChE deficiency, succinylcholine induced prolonged neuromuscular blockade did not last for more than 23minutes and in case of atypical PChE, neuromuscular block lasts up to 4-8 hours. In our case, the apnea was prolonged for almost 24 hrs, which is very rare. Hence we are reporting a case of prolonged apnea after administration of single dose of succinylcholine.