Chat GPT and anesthesiology

[George K]

A little background.

Muscle relaxant drugs (curare, rocuronium and others) work by blocking the receptor on the muscle from receiving the neurotransmitter (acetylcholine) and therefor the muscle never fires.

The way to "reverse" the paralysis is by causing a lot more acetylcholine to be in the area, and just by mass effect, the paralytic is displaced, and is eventually metabolized/excreted. This has been standard practice since the 1950s. Classically the drug used to do this is "neostigmine." It's full of bad, bad side effects, some of which can be mitigated or antagonized.

Just as I was retiring, a new drug came on the market that revolutionized the antagonism of neuromuscular blockade: suggamadex. It works by a completely different mechanism. It "encloses" or "encases" the paralytic drug so that it can't interact with the neuromuscular junction. It is fast, safe, reliable and has few side effects. Basically, it puts the paralytic in molecular jail where it can do no harm. It fits right in the hole.

So, some gas passer on twitter asked ChatGPT to write a poem about suggamadex - in the style of Dr. Seuss.

[jon-nyc]

We focus a lot on what it messes up, but it is really remarkable. We live in interesting times.

[Mik]

I’d think it has interesting implications in legal advice.

[George K]

I asked it to write a poem about a couple of anesthetic gases. One is used today, the other went out of fashion in the late 1980s.