Muscle pains after intramuscular suxamethonium chloride.

The use of suxamethonium chloride by intramuscular injection as a short acting muscle relaxant for endotracheal intubation is described. The incidence and severity of postoperative muscle pains in this group of 94 patients is compared with the results of another group (of 112 patients) in which the drug was given intravenously. The incidence of pains was similar in the two groups (26.6 and 28.6 per cent respectively). The percentage of severe pains was reduced from 18.7 in the intravenous series, to 12.8 in the intramuscular; this reduction was not statistically significant.