Colour coding of stopcocks used in pressure monitoring systems

Abstract

Lambert ~ on the optimal interval between the pretreatment dose of d-tubocurarine (dTC) and succinylcholine administration to prevent muscle pains. Having suffered personally from succinylcholine-induced muscle pain it is my practice to pretreat all patients who are to receive the drug. I warn the patients that they will develop double vision and do not proceed with the induction until they report its presence. Double vision usually develops between two or three minutes after the administration of dTC. If double vision does not occur or if pressure of time necessitates an earlier induction then the fasciculations are usually not abolished.The presence of double vision confirms the onset of action of dTC and is preferable to an arbitrary time limit which makes no allowance for differences in circulation time and other factors influencing the onset of neuromuscular blockade.