BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the effects of mivacurium on onset and recovery were affected by the duration of more than 2 weeks after injury of the lower motor neuron in rabbits. METHODS: The animals were divided into five groups. The control group was without lower motor neuron injury. In the experimental groups, the lower motor neuron injury was made by denervating with a 75 - 80% lesion on the common peroneal nerve to the right anterior tibialis muscle. The experimental groups were subdivided as 1, 2, 3 and 4 week groups (named group 1 wk, 2, 3 and 4 wks) according to the duration of the denervation of the common peroneal nerve. The response relationship of mivacurium on the muscle twitches induced by TOF (train of four) stimulation (supramaximal stimulus of 0.2 ms duration, square-wave pulses, 2 Hz rate and 10 mA, repeated every 10 seconds) was studied in the anterior tibialis muscles and compared between all groups. Neuromuscular responses (onset, recovery time to T1(1), T1(25), T1(75), T1(95) and recovery index) of muscle twitches to intravenous mivacurium (0.18 mg/kg) were studied. After recording the muscle twitches, macroscopic findings were observed. RESULTS: The recovery time, T1(1) of group 4 wks was significantly longer than those of group 1, 2 and 3 wks (P < 0.05), but not different from the control group. The recovery time, T1(25), T1(75) and T1(95) of group 4 wks was significantly longer than those of all other groups (P < 0.05), but the onset times of all groups were not significantly different. The recovery index of group 4 wks was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05), but those of groups 1, 2 and 3 wks were not significantly different from that of the control group. The mass of the anterior tibialis muscle was significantly decreased at 4 weeks after the lower motor neuron injury (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results therefore suggest that the neuromuscular response to intravenous mivacurium on recovery in rabbits becomes prolonged according to the durations of the denervation and represents sensitivity at 4 weeks after the lower motor neuron injury.