Anesthesia for Patients with Neuromuscular Disease

Anesthesia for Patients with Neuromuscular Disease

Although neuromuscular diseases are relatively uncommon, patients with these conditions will present to the operating room and to non–operating room procedure areas for diagnostic studies, treat-ment of complications, or surgical management of related or unrelated disorders. Overall debility, with diminished respiratory muscle strength and increased sensitivity to neuromuscular blockers (NMBs), predisposes these patients to postoperative ventilatory failure and pulmonary aspiration, and may slow their post-procedure recovery because of difficulty with ambulation and increased risk of falling. A basic understanding of the major disor-ders and their potential interaction with anesthetic agents is necessary to minimize the risk of periop-erative morbidity.