Ephedrine for Reducing Onset Time of Rocurinium in Elderly Patients

Onset time of rocuronium 0.6 mg/kg defined as the time from administration of rocuronium until TOF count of 0.

Onset time is determined by an investigator using a stop-watch.

Intubating conditions assessed by The Intubation Difficulty Scale (IDS)

Tracheal intubation will be performed when TOF count is zero. The anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist will be interviewed after intubation by the investigator, who will note a score for each variable and the initials of the operator in the CRF. The intubating conditions will be classified with "Degree of Difficulty" according to the IDS scale, where an IDS score of 0 translates to "Easy", a score of 0 \< IDS ≤ 5 translates to "Slight Difficulty" and 5 \< IDS translates to "Moderate to Major Difficulty". Impossible intubation is defined by infinity (IDS = ∞ ).

Intubating conditions assessed by Fuchs-Buder scale

Tracheal intubation will be performed when TOF count is zero. The anesthesiologist or nurse anesthetist will be interviewed after intubation by the investigator, who will note a score for each variable and the initials of the operator in the CRF. All variables will be assessed as either excellent, good or poor. The intubating conditions will be classified as excellent if all qualities are excellent, good if all qualities are either excellent or good and poor if the presence of a single quality listed as poor.

Occurrence of new cardiac arrythmia during induction of anaesthesia (<15 minutes after administration of ephedrine or saline)

Change in mean arterial blood pressure from before induction to immediately after intubation

Occurrence of hoarseness and sore throat 24 and 72 hours postoperatively

After 24 hours patients are asked about hoarseness and sore throat. The patients who experience either or both will be called 3 days postoperatively again. These two variables are assessed using a numeric ranking scale.