Abstract
Malignant hyperthermia was first reported by Denborough in 19621 as a potentially lethal, autosomal dominant syndrome of unknown aetiology. The condition he described consisted of fulminant crises triggered by potent inhalational anesthetic agents, the outstanding features of which were fever, tachycardia, tachypnea and cyanosis. In the few intervening years much has been learned about this remarkable pharmacogenetic disturbance of the skeletal and cardiac muscles.Before anesthesia some members of many, but not all, malignant-hyperthermia-susceptible families have a greater than normal muscle bulk and power. Associated with this generalized muscularity may be localized areas of muscle weakness such as ptosis, kyphoscoliosis, . . .