Respiratory arrest associated with polymyxin B in a lung transplant patient

To the Editor:The polymyxin antibiotics colistin(polymyxin E)and polymyxin B(PMB)became available in the 1950s;thus,they did not undergo contemporary drug development procedures.Their clinical use has recently resurged,assuming an important role as salvage therapv for otherwise untreatable gram-negative infection.[1]Multidrug-resistant(MDR)bacterial infections are primarily caused by gram-negative bacilli(GNB),such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae^in lung transplant(LT)patients.[2]The increasing prevalence of MDR-GNB infections in LT patients has led to an upsurge in the use of these“older”drugs.During the treatment course,we should pay attention to severe and life-threatening respiratory paralysis caused by neuromuscular blockage associated with PMB.Herein,we report a rare case of a 67-year-old LT patient who suffered from respiratory arrest induced by PMB.