Fatal hyperkalemia following succinylcholine administration in a child on oral propranolol
-
Anuradha Ganigara
,
Chandrakala Ravishankar
Abstract
Succinylcholine is one of the most commonly used drugs by anesthesiologists worldwide for rapid access to airway both in emergency and elective situations. Nonetheless, the very mention of succinylcholine generates the most energetic high decibel debate between its users and nonusers. Despite its potential to produce a short-acting, ultra-intense neuromuscular block rapidly in seconds, it is surrounded by a plethora of side effects and drug interactions. This case report is about one such drug interaction of this innocent yet malicious drug, which resulted in the death of a 14-year-old girl. Both β-adrenergic blockers and succinylcholine are known to cause hyperkalemia. Life-threatening hyperkalemia in susceptible individuals who have been administered succinylcholine has the most severe effect on the myocardium and can result in asystole with minimal chances of resuscitation. Both succinylcholine and a nonselective β-adrenergic blocker, propranolol, have the propensity to affect the transcellular redistribution of potassium which can result in hyperkalemia. We advocate cautious use of this drug combination till further studies confirm the drug interaction and find the potential triggering factors involved.
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©2015 by De Gruyter
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- From DMDI “Drug Metabolism and Drug Interactions” to DMPT “Drug Metabolism and Personalized Therapy”
- Review
- Clinical drug-drug interactions: focus on venlafaxine
- Reviews in Population Pharmacogenomics
- Pharmacogenetics in Central American healthy volunteers: interethnic variability
- Genomic biomarkers related to drug response in Venezuelan populations
- Originial Articles
- No effect of CYP3A4 intron 6 C>T polymorphism (CYP3A4*22) on lipid-lowering response to statins in Greek patients with primary hypercholesterolemia
- Chloral hydrate, through biotransformation to dichloroacetate, inhibits maleylacetoacetate isomerase and tyrosine catabolism in humans
- Effect of rifampin on the pharmacokinetics of bosutinib, a dual Src/Abl tyrosine kinase inhibitor, when administered concomitantly to healthy subjects
- Minor contribution of biliary excretion in lithium elimination in rats
- Case Report
- Fatal hyperkalemia following succinylcholine administration in a child on oral propranolol
