Impact of Deep Versus Standard Muscle Relaxation on Intra-operative Safety

Muscle relaxants are routinely applied during anesthesia to facilitate endotracheal intubation and to improve surgical working conditions. Several investigations have shown that a deep neuromuscular block (NMB) improves the surgical working conditions over a moderate NMB and effectively precludes sudden deterioration of the surgical field. However, whether the improvement of surgical working conditions translates into less intra- and postoperative complications remains uncertain. Small prospective or retrospective studies shown an decrease of the incidence of intraoperative adverse events and postoperative complications after a deep NMB. There is a need to confirm these outcome data prospectively, in a large number of patients and clinics and during a variety of surgical procedures.