Abstract: AIM: To investigate the feasibility of ear-ly reversal of vecuronium with neostigmine.METHODS: 48 patients (ASA class I or II) scheduled for elective surgery undergoing general anaethesia were randomly as-signed to vecuronium group (n =16) and vecuronium + neostigmine group (n =32).Furthermore, the latter was dividedinto two groups according to the timeof reversal. In vecuronium + neostigmine group 1, the patients re-ceived neostigmine antagonization within 10 min after ve-curonium administration, andin vecuronium +neostigmine group 2, timeof reversal within 11-30 min after vecuro-nium administration.All patients received vecuronium 1.5 mg·kg^-1 after general anesthesia.Neostigmine 0.05 mg·kg^-1 +atropine 0.5^-1.0 mg +saline 8 ml was ad-ministered to vecuronium +neostigmine group and recov-ery was compared with that of vecuronium patients who re-ceived 8 ml saline.The timefrom vecuronium administra-tion torecovery of TOF 0.25 and 0.7 was recorded.RESULTS: In vecuronium group, the recovery timeto TOF 0.25 and 0.7 was (45.58±8.88) min, and (67.59±5.60) min, respectirely;in vecuronium + neostigmine group 1, it was (23.45±2.82) min, and (31.86±3.36) min, respectirely;andin vecuronium + neostigmine group 2, it was (28.70±4.13) min, and (38.86±2.10) min, respectirely.The recovery timein vecuronium +neostigmine group was evidently shorter than that in vecuronium group (P<0.01) and similarly the recovery in vecuronium +neostigmine group 1 was more rapid than that in vecuronium +neostigmine group 2 (P<0.01).The recovery was monitored continuously after surgery, and residual neuromuscular blocking was not founded from all 48 patients.CONCLUSION: Recovery of vecuronium neuromuscular block can be antagonized byearly neostigmine administration, and more early reversal, more rapid recovery.

Key words: neostigmine, vecuronium, early reversal