Succinylcholine is a depolarising muscle relaxant that is used for rapid tracheal intubation in general anesthesia. It is a short-acting drug which is hydrolyzed by plasma cholinesterase. Some factors can decrease the activity of this enzyme in body. Some patients may have abnormal form of this enzyme that leads to prolonged duration of action and apnea. The subjects of this research were a male (55) and a female (57) who had prolonged apnea after administration of succinylcholine (4-8h), and they improved completely after mechanical ventilation.

  Background & objectives : O bstructive sleep apnea is a preventable and prevalent major health hazard with serious health consequences including excessive daytime sleepiness, cognitive disturbances, depression, cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder affecting 2 to 4% of the adult population. The continuous positive airway pressur e (CPAP) i s the most efficacious therapy and is often the first option for these patients. The pressure titration during laboratory polysomnography is required for treatment by CPAP.

  Methods: The patients with obstructive sleep apnea requiring continuous positive airway pressure treatment were selected . CPAP titration was done according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine protocol. Comparison among continuous positive airway pressure with polysomnographic parameters was performed and analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficient. For analysis of qualitative parameters, we used chi-square and then checked with SPSS version 18 software.

  Results: From 125 patients with obstructive sleep apnea, there were 112 cases with inclusion criteria. Mean age of participants was 55.07 ± 12, male frequency was 59.2%, apnea hypopnea index was 43.62 and mean continuous positive airway pressure was 12.50 . There was significant relationship among the pressure of continuous positive airway pressure with apnea hypopnea index (P=0.028), arousal index (P=0.011), body mass index (P=0.041) and O₂ desaturation index (P=0.022), although age was not significantly related.

  Conclusion: In accordance to this data, we found out a prediction equation for optimal CPAP in our patients