Intravenous dezocine pretreatment reduces the incidence and intensity of myoclonus induced by etomidate

To evaluate the suppressive effect of intravenous dezocine on the incidence and severity of myoclonic movements induced by etomidate, a total of 80 patients, American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status I–II, were randomized into two equally sized groups (n = 40). These two groups were assigned to give either intravenous dezocine 0.1 mg/kg or a matching placebo (equal volume of 0.9 % saline) 30 s before administration of etomidate. For anesthesia induction, 0.3 mg/kg etomidate was injected over a period of 1 min. One minute after etomidate administration, the severity of myoclonus was assessed. Pretreatment with dezocine significantly reduced both the incidence and intensity of myoclonus. These results demonstrate that intravenous dezocine 0.1 mg/kg 30 s prior to induction was effective in suppressing myoclonic movements in our patients.