Malignant hyperthermia was first presented in an academic journal by Dr.Denborough, an Australian physician, in 1960.
Malignant Hyperthermia is a sickness that is related to the anesthesia.　Nowadays it is known not only to anesthetists but also doctors in different fields. 　The mortality rate has decreased rapidly.　 In our country the mortality rate was around 80% in the 1960s, but it has been lowered to 10% in the 1980s. 　However, it is called “nightmare to anesthetists”, as it is still dreadful disease.
　Malignant hyperthermia can be triggered when susceptible people are given volatile anesthetic drugs and muscle relaxant such as succinylcholine. 　In many occasions, nothing happens during the operation. 　The cause has not been found yet.
A characteristic symptom is muscular rigidity. 　In addition, unknown tachycardia, arrhythmia will be followed, and the blood pressure will be unstable. 　The carbon dioxide gas pressure of the expiration begins to rise.　 After about 60 minutes, rapid increase in body temperature will be followed.In many cases, the body temperature will rise up to more than 40℃. 　Then, the urine will decolorized to red-brown (color tone similar to Coke) and fall into so-called the shock state.　 Distinguishing between malignant hyperthermia and symptoms similar to that is essential. 　At the first stage, expiration of carbon dioxide gas density will rise abnormally.　Moreover, due to the collapse of the skeletal muscle, serum potassium might rise and might lead to the cardiac arrest.
　It can be defined as malignant hyperthermia when there is an increase in body temperature at a rate more than 0.5℃ every 15 minutes, body temperature indicating 40℃ and showing above mentioned various symptoms.
　As for treatment, discontinuance of trigger medicine, administration of Dantrolene and the symptomatic therapy represented by whole body cooling is important.　Furthermore, the treatment results have been improved further by discovering the specific medicine called Dantrolene.
　The cause: Widely accepted theory is that the discharge speed of the calcium from the sarcoplasmic reticulum (calcium storage in the skeletal muscle) is abnormally accelerated in the patient who has the primary cause. 　The mechanism: Especially,
when trigger medicine be applied, calcium level within the skeletal muscle will rise abnormally.　When the calcium level within the skeletal muscle rises, the calcium
release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum becomes faster. 　When the rise of calcium level within the skeletal muscle results in the acceleration ofmetabolism, the temperature within the skeletal muscle rises.　Due to the temperature rise, the calcium release from the sarcoplasmic reticulum becomes faster.　 Thus, the state worsens more and more by a series of reaction within the organism.
　Using safe anesthetics, careful supervision in the perioperative period (before, the middle and after the operation), and careful watching of monitoring enables susceptible individuals to have anesthesia safely.　Research of malignant hyperthermia is ongoing globally. 　Daily progress has been announced at a seminar and publicized in a journal.　Moreover, the specialists of malignant hyperthermia hold a forum once in two or three years globally exchanging general information and their research results.　Nowadays the geneticists also participate in the forum presenting the problems from the genetic point of view and what they have achieved.