Succinylcholine (Nursing)

00:00 Hi, welcome to our pharmacology video series. Now, on this one we're going to look at neuromuscular blockers, and this is my favorite title. Well, that sucks. I'm sure you've said that before in nursing school, but we're going to look at succinylcholine, often called succs, which is why we can get away with a whole video saying that. Yup, let's review. Competitive or non-depolarizing versus depolarizing. Now, we've talked about the competitive ones in another series, but in here we're going to look at the depolarizing ones. Now, you see that we compare how they both work. Now, look what's different about depolarizing. It has a rapid onset just like the competitive but look it peaks a lot quicker and it doesn't last as long as a competitive.

00:45 So, it is ultra short-acting for recovery. So, we don't use it for long procedures. That's what we are focusing on. So, you might just put it like a light line through the competitive, circle the depolarizing. That's what we're going to focus on for this whole video portion. Okay, we gave you a long list of the competitive ones, right, and we've broken this down in other videos, but in this one we're going to look just at succs. So, whenever you need to say it, and you say well that sucks, and you know what we're talking about. So, how does this one work? Succinylcholine or succs is the only depolarizing neuromuscular junction blocking drug. Tada! That's a mouthful. But succs is the only depolarizing neuromuscular junction blocking drug or neuromuscular blocker. So, it binds to acetylcholine receptors, and it causes a prolonged depolarization of the motor endplate. Now, look at that drawing with the motor endplate.

01:49 We're talking about that neuromuscular junction where the nerve and the muscle come together. So, because this type of neuromuscular blocker binds to the acetylcholine receptor and it makes it lot slower prolonged depolarization, that's how muscles make their movement, so there's a long depolarization in the motor endplate which is what causes the flaccid paralysis. Okay, so it kicks in quicker. It doesn't last as long, really shorter recovery, but works a little bit differently, and then it binds right to those receptors, and it delays the depolarization at the motor endplate. So, succinylcholine is used for muscle relaxation during intubation. That's also very helpful and remember if we just want to have that paralysis while we're intubating a patient, this is a good choice. It's going to kick in quick. It's not going to last for a very long time. It only lasts a short time, so we don't need it for a long procedure.

02:50 Intubations should be quick. That's why this is probably a better choice for a quick intubation.