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Objective Anticholinesterase drugs may produce paradoxical neuromuscular block when administered at shallow levels of neuromuscular block. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of neostigmine and edrophonium when administered at near-complete reversal from nondepolarizing block in anesthetized dogs. Study design Incomplete crossover, randomized, blinded experimental study. Animals A total of 12 Beagle dogs. Methods Each dog was anesthetized twice with propofol and maintained with isoflurane and dexmedetomidine. Intravenous (IV) vecuronium (0.1 mg kg-11) was administered. When the mechanographic train-of-four (TOF) ratio had spontaneously recovered to ≥0.9, either neostigmine (0.04 mg kg-11) or edrophonium (0.5 mg kg-11) was administered IV, preceeded by atropine. Changes in twitch height or TOF ratio were measured for the next 10 minutes. Recurarization was considered to be present if values decreased by ≥10%. Results Data from four dogs in each treatment were excluded from analysis, resulting in data from five dogs administered both treatments, three dogs administered neostigmine and three dogs administered edrophonium. There was no difference between groups for age, weight, T1 and T4 twitch heights or TOF ratio values, before or after anticholinesterase administration. The TOF ratio decreased by 17% and 18% in two of the eight dogs administered neostigmine, resulting from a larger increase in T1 relative to T4. No reductions in individual twitch amplitudes were recorded in those dogs. When edrophonium was used, no cases of recurarization were observed. Conclusions and clinical relevance The results support use of edrophonium for reversal of shallow neuromuscular block. The decreases in TOF ratio recorded after neostigmine does not necessarily indicate muscular weakness. Although the clinical implications are uncertain, the results suggest that, at these doses, edrophonium may be preferable to neostigmine for reversal of shallow neuromuscular block in dogs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]