Why do ICU patients become paralyzed?

✍ Scribed by Robert L. Ruff

• Book ID: 101469389
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 144 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0364-5134
• DOI: 10.1002/ana.410430204

✦ Synopsis

The complexity of skeletal muscle is highlighted by the article on quadriplegic myopathy from k c h and colleagues. ' Acute quadriplegic myopathy, also called acute illness myopathy or acute myopathy of intensive care, is an extremely serious condition that can develop in the presence of two of the following three conditions: (1) treatment with a nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocking agent, (2) use of high-dose systemic glucocorticoids, or (3) severe illness such as sepsis.2p4

How these conditions combine to produce paralysis is not known. Prior studies of acute quadriplegic myopathy focused on the profound muscle fiber atrophy and loss of contractile proteins, especially in fast-twitch fib e r ~. ~, ~ Rich and colleagues' examined the causes of loss of membrane excitability that can produce paralysis in some patients.