Gallamine triethiodide (Flaxedil) is a non-depolarising muscle relaxant. It acts by combining with the cholinergic receptor sites in muscle

Muscle

Muscle is a contractile tissue of animals and is derived from the mesodermal layer of embryonic germ cells. Muscle cells contain contractile filaments that move past each other and change the size of the cell. They are classified as skeletal, cardiac, or smooth muscles. Their function is to...

 and competitively blocking the transmitter action of acetylcholine

Acetylcholine

The chemical compound acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter in both the peripheral nervous system and central nervous system in many organisms including humans...

. Gallamine triethiodide has a parasympatholytic

Parasympatholytic

A parasympatholytic agent is a substance or activity that reduces the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system. A parasympatholytic agent is a substance or activity that reduces the activity of the parasympathetic nervous system. A parasympatholytic agent is a substance or activity that...

 effect on the cardiac vagus nerve

Vagus nerve

The vagus nerve , also called pneumogastric nerve or cranial nerve X, is the tenth of twelve paired cranial nerves...

 which causes tachycardia

Tachycardia

Tachycardia comes from the Greek words tachys and kardia . Tachycardia typically refers to a heart rate that exceeds the normal range for a resting heart rate...

 and occasionally hypertension

Hypertension

Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...

. Very high doses cause histamine

Histamine

Histamine is an organic nitrogen compound involved in local immune responses as well as regulating physiological function in the gut and acting as a neurotransmitter. Histamine triggers the inflammatory response. As part of an immune response to foreign pathogens, histamine is produced by...

 release.

Gallamine triethiodide is commonly used to stabilize muscle contractions during surgical procedures.

It was developed by Daniel Bovet

Daniel Bovet

Daniel Bovet was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He is best known for his discovery in 1937 of antihistamines, which block the neurotransmitter histamine and...

in 1947.