Safety and Efficacy of 4 mg·kg(−1) Sugammadex for Simultaneous Pancreas-Kidney Transplantation Recipients: A Prospective Randomized Trial

BACKGROUND: Simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplantation (SPK) is a time-consuming and important surgical procedure, which can provide a physiological mean of achieving normoglycemia and render patients free of dialysis. The potential clinical benefits of sugammadex include fast and predictable reverse deep neuromuscular blockade (NMB), but whether sugammadex affects the function of SPK grafts is uncertain. MATERIAL/METHODS: Forty-eight patients were studied and reversed deep NMB with either sugammadex (n=24) or neostigmine (n=24). The safety variables included serum creatinine (Scr), creatinine clearance rate (CCr), serum amylase (AMS), blood glucose (Glu), mean arterial pressure (MAP), and heart rate (HR). Secondary outcomes were time from administration of sugammadex/neostigmine at the scheduled time to recovery of a TOF ratio to 0.7 and 0.9, and post-acute pulmonary complications. RESULTS: Scr at T2–6 was significantly lower than that at T0–1 (P<0.01), while CCr was higher (P<0.05). Between the 2 groups, Scr, CCr, and AMS were similar at the same timepoints (P>0.05). MAP, HR, and Glu were higher in group S than in group N at T1 (P<0.05). The recovery time of TOF=0.7 was 3 (2.4–4.2) min for group S and 12.1 (10.2–15.9) min for group N (P<0.001), and recovery time to TOFr ≥0.9 was 4.8 (3.6–7.1) min for group S and 23.5 (19.8–30.8) in group S. Compared to group N, group S had lower risk for post-acute pulmonary complications: supplemental oxygen requirements 0 vs 4 (16.7%), pulmonary atelectasis 0 vs 2 (0.83%), pneumonia 1 (4.2%) vs 3 (12.5%), and hypoxemia 1 (4.2%) vs 4 (16.7%). CONCLUSIONS: Sugammadex administration is safe and effective for SPK transplantation recipients.