No conflicts of interest Should we abandon succinylcholine and sodium pentothal in GA cesarean delivery? Antti Väänänen, MD, Ph.D. SSAI diploma in obstetric anesthesia Helsinki University Central Hospital /Women’s hospital No conflicts of interest

Sodium pentothal Difficult to use, needs prior dilution, increasingly rarely used for other indications, may become difficult to procure, precipitates with other drugs easily No benefit for the mother Depth of sleep is not better Higher haemodynamic responces to intubation Not convincingly better than propofol for the child Use in GA cesareans should be discontinued

Succinylcholine aka suxamethonium Old molecule, widely replaced by other non-depolarizing agents, such as rocuronium in other indications Holds its place in rapid sequence induction schemes Rapid onset of action, rapid recovery Has side effects such as myalgia, trismus, malignant hypertermia Replacement by rocuronium is at the time still somewhat controversial High doses needed to achieve similar intubation conditions Placental transfer rate of high doses currently undetermined Maybe too early to discard