In
medicine, a
muscle relaxant is a drug that causes
skeletal muscle[?] contraction to cease. Muscle relaxants are used to facilitate
surgery, to enable
tracheal intubation and to facilitate
mechanical ventilation[?].
Muscles relaxants typically work by blocking the effect of acetylcholine (ACh) at the neuromuscular junction[?].
Substances that compete with ACh, for the receptors on a muscle cell can be either depolarising, or non-depolarising.
Depolarising muscles relaxants activate the muscle briefly, before blocking it.
Non-depolarising relaxants block the ACh receptors without activating them.
Botulinum toxin, marketed as
Botox for facial wrinkle removal, works by stopping the release of ACh from the presynaptic
neuron.