Anticholinesterases/Succinylcholine Interactions

This information is generalized and not intended as specific medical advice. Consult your healthcare professional before taking or discontinuing any drug or commencing any course of treatment.

Medical warning:

Moderate. These medicines may cause some risk when taken together. Contact your healthcare professional (e.g. doctor or pharmacist) for more information.

How the interaction occurs:

When these two medicines are taken together, your body may not process succinylcholine properly.

What might happen:

The effects of succinylcholine may last for a longer time.

What you should do about this interaction:

Succinylcholine is only used during surgical procedures or in a hospital. If you are to have either inpatient or outpatient surgery, or are to be admitted to the hospital, make sure that all the healthcare professionals are aware of all the different medicines that you are taking. This includes prescription medicines, herbal drugs, and nutraceuticals.Your healthcare professionals may already be aware of this interaction and may be monitoring you for it. Do not start, stop, or change the dosage of any medicine before checking with them first.

  • 1.Vickers MDA. The mismanagement of suxamethonium apnoea. Br J Anaesth 1963; 35(4):260-8.
  • 2.Gissen AJ, Katz RL, Karis JH, Papper EM. Neuromuscular block in man during prolonged arterial infusion with succinylcholine. Anesthesiology 1966 May-Jun;27(3):242-9.
  • 3.Miller RD, Stevens WC. Antagonism of succinylcholine paralysis in a patient with atypical pseudocholinesterase. Anesthesiology 1972 May; 36(5):511-3.
  • 4.Baraka A. Potentiation of suxamethonium blockade by neostigmine in patients with atypical cholinesterase. Br J Anaesth 1975 Mar;47(3):416-8.
  • 5.Bentz EW, Stoelting RK. Prolonged response to succinylcholine following pancuronium reversal with pyridostigmine. Anesthesiology 1976 Mar; 44(3):258-60.
  • 6.Baraka A. Suxamethonium-neostigmine interaction in patients with normal or atypical cholinesterase. Br J Anaesth 1977 May;49(5):479-84.
  • 7.Kopman AF, Strachovsky G, Lichtenstein L. Prolonged response to succinylcholine following physostigmine. Anesthesiology 1978 Aug; 49(2):142-3.

Selected from data included with permission and copyrighted by First Databank, Inc. This copyrighted material has been downloaded from a licensed data provider and is not for distribution, except as may be authorized by the applicable terms of use.

CONDITIONS OF USE: The information in this database is intended to supplement, not substitute for, the expertise and judgment of healthcare professionals. The information is not intended to cover all possible uses, directions, precautions, drug interactions or adverse effects, nor should it be construed to indicate that use of a particular drug is safe, appropriate or effective for you or anyone else. A healthcare professional should be consulted before taking any drug, changing any diet or commencing or discontinuing any course of treatment.