Muscle Relaxants for the MRCEM Exam
Neuromuscular blocking drugs used in anaesthesia are also known as muscle relaxants. By specific blockade of the neuromuscular junction, they enable light anaesthesia to be used with adequate relaxation of the muscles of the abdomen and diaphragm. They also relax the...
The Importance of a Good Night’s Sleep
“There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep.” Homer, The Odyssey Pulling an ‘all-nighter’ On several occasions over the years, I have decided to ‘pull an all-nighter’ and stay up to study for an exam the following day. On some occasions, it...
The Descending Tracts
The descending tracts are pathways whereby motor signals travel from the brain to the lower motor neurons to innervate muscles and cause movement. There are no synapses in the descending pathways. All of the neurons in the descending tracts are upper motor neurons,...
The Ascending Tracts
The ascending tracts are neural pathways located in the white matter that conduct afferent information from the peripheral nerves to the cerebral cortex. There are usually three neurons in an ascending pathway: First-order neurons, in which the cell body is in the...
