The unique advantage of rocuronium over other intermediate duration non-depolarizing muscle relaxants (NDMR) is which of the following?
A. Ultra short duration of action
B. Metabolism by plasma pseudocholinesterase
C. More rapid onset of action
D. Lack of need for reversal
E. Lack of potentiation with aminoglycoside antibiotics
The answer is C. The first two letters of the name rocuronium stands for rapid onset. Of the intermediate duration nondepolarizing muscle relaxants, it has the most rapid onset of action at clinical dosages. Rocuronium has a similar duration of action to vecuronium, atracurium, and cisatracurium. At an ED95 dose (0.3 mg/kg), the onset time is 1.5 to 3 minutes, whereas with the other intermediate nondepolarizing muscle relaxants, the onset time is 3 to 7 minutes. At larger doses (i.e., 2xED95 or 0.6 mg/kg), onset time can be reduced to 1 to 1.5 minutes
Lambertus van den Broek, MD∗, MD J.Mar K.H. Wierda, PhD, †, Nicky J. Smeulers, MD‡, Gert Jan van Santen§, Monique G.L. Leclercq§, MD Pim J. Hennis, PhD‖ Clinical pharmacology of rocuronium (ORG 9426): Study of the time course of action, dose requirement, reversibility, and pharmacokinetics Journal of Clinical Anesthesia Volume 6, Issue 4, July–August 1994, Pages 288–296