Laryngeal muscle recovery after suxamethonium. Detection during intratracheal jet ventilation by pressure curve monitoring.

Complications due to intratracheal jet ventilation are often caused by the unrecognized recovery of laryngeal muscles. The rate of rise of pressure in a main bronchus alters with changes of the glottic aperture during jet ventilation. The special pressure curve monitor sets off an alarm when the steepness of the rising curve changes. During recovery these alarms, as well as the onset of phonation, coughing, spontaneous breathing and forearm muscle activity are recorded simultaneously. Forearm muscle activity always appears later than the alarm, and often later than the other recorded phenomena. Pressure curve monitoring provides advance warning of returning muscle activity in the larynx, but conventional muscle activity monitoring in the forearm does not.