Effects of hydrocortisone-presensitized sugammadex on recovery from neuromuscular blockade induced by rocuronium: a rodent in vivo study

Sugammadex is a specific antagonist of aminosteroidal neuromuscular blocking agents with 1:1 binding to guest molecules. Sugammadex can also bind to other drugs having a steroid component in its chemical structure. In this in vivo experiment, we investigated the differences in the recovery of rocuronium-induced neuromuscular blockade using sugammadex pre-exposed with two different concentrations of hydrocortisone. The sciatic nerves and tibialis anterior muscles of 30 adult Sprague-Dawley rats were prepared for the experiment. The sciatic nerves were stimulated using a train-of-four (TOF) pattern with indirect supramaximal stimulation at 20 s intervals. After 15 min of stabilization, a 250 μg loading dose and 125 μg booster doses of rocuronium were serially administered until > 95% depression of the first twitch tension of TOF stimulation (T1) was confirmed. The study drugs were prepared by mixing sugamadex with the same volume of three different stock solutions (0.9% normal saline, 10 mg/ml hydrocortisone, and 100 mg/ ml hydrocortisone). The recovery of rats from neuromuscular blockade was monitored by assessing T1 and the TOF ratio (TOFR) simultaneously until T1 was recovered to > 95% and TOFR to > 0.9. In the group injected with sugammadex premixed with a high concentration of hydrocortisone, statistically significant intergroup differences were observed in the recovery progression of T1 and TOFR (P < 0.050). When sugammadex was pre-exposed to a high dose of hydrocortisone only, recovery from neuromuscular blockade was delayed. Delayed recovery from neuromuscular blockade is not always plausible when sugammadex is pre-exposed to steroidal drugs.