Introduction to muscle relaxants.

The first writings of curare appeared about 1500. Two hundred and fifty years later the first real experimentation took place with the drug and an additional two hundred years elapsed before the drug found its true place in medicine. During the past decade it has become a valuable drug in anesthesia. The muscle relaxants have been divided into two groups according to their action - the curare-like or competitive inhibition blocking group, and the C-10-like or depolarizing blocking group. They act at the myoneural junction to produce relaxation with very little effect on the remainder of the body. In recent years the synthetic curare-like drugs have overshadowed purified curare.