Pre‐operative management of paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia in a stallion scheduled for castration

A 15-year-old, fractious, weighing 470 kg, Achal-Tekkiner stallion was referred for elective castration. Pre-anaesthetic clinical evaluation revealed tachycardia with a heart rate (HR) of 66 bpm and diastolic left side heart murmur II/VI grade. Lung auscultation was unremarkable. Acepromazine (0.03 mg/kg) was administered intramuscularly to calm the horse for reassessment. Thirty minutes later, HR was 120 bpm. An electrocardiogram (ECG) showed monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. A bolus of Ringer lactate, 10 ml/kg over 30 minutes, and magnesium, 27 g diluted in 1 L 0.9% sodium chloride (NaCl), was administered intravenously. As arrhythmia persisted, a constant-rate infusion of lidocaine, 50 mcg/kg/h, was started. The horse was monitored with telemetry ECG. The arrhythmia resolved after 24 hours and echocardiography showed mild tricuspid, aortic and pulmonary insufficiency. Anaesthetic risk was considered to be acceptable and the procedure was performed without complications. The horse was discharged after another 24 hours without detectable ECG abnormalities

Analgesic Efficacy of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Therapy in Horses with Abdominal Pain: A Systematic Review

This systematic review aimed to identify the evidence concerning the analgesic efficacy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to treat abdominal pain in horses, and to establish whether one non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug could provide better analgesia compared to others. This systematic review was conducted following the “Systematic Review Protocol for Animal Intervention Studies”. Research published between 1985 and the end of May 2023 was searched, using three databases, namely, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus, using the words equine OR horse AND colic OR abdominal pain AND non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug AND meloxicam OR flunixin meglumine OR phenylbutazone OR firocoxib OR ketoprofen. Risk of bias was assessed with the SYRCLE risk of bias tool, and level of evidence scored according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine. A total of 10 studies met the inclusion criteria. From those only one study judged pain with a validated pain score, and a high risk of bias was identified due to the presence of selection, performance, and “other” types of bias. Therefore, caution is required in the interpretation of results from individual studies. To date, the evidence on analgesic efficacy to determine whether one drug is more potent than another regarding the treatment of abdominal pain in horses is sparse

The Outcomes of an Opioid-Free Anaesthetic Plan in Fourteen Dogs Undergoing Enucleation Using an Ultrasound-Guided Supra-Temporal Retrobulbar Block: A Retrospective Case Series

The objective of this retrospective case series is to report the outcomes of an opioid-free anesthetic plan in dogs undergoing enucleation surgery. A total of 14 dogs were admitted for enucleation between March and December 2020. A multimodal approach to perioperative analgesia was used, with a focus on retrobulbar anesthesia. A combination of an ultrasound-guided retrobulbblock with a supratemporal approach in association with ketamine, dexmedetomidine and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was used in the reported cases. Intraoperative nociception was defined as an increase of 20% from the baseline in one or more of the following parameters: heart rate, respiratory rate or mean arterial pressure. An ultrasound-guided retrobulbar block in an opioid-free anesthesia regime was effective at managing the perioperative analgesia of 13 out of 14 dogs. In only one case, a bolus of fentanyl was administered to treat intraoperative nociception. Recovery was uneventful in all the dogs, and the postoperative pain scores remained below the intervention threshold at all time points. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported case series of opioid-free anesthesia for enucleation in dogs

Analgesic Efficacy of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug Therapy in Horses with Abdominal Pain: A Systematic Review

This systematic review aimed to identify the evidence concerning the analgesic efficacy of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs to treat abdominal pain in horses, and to establish whether one non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug could provide better analgesia compared to others. This systematic review was conducted following the “Systematic Review Protocol for Animal Intervention Studies”. Research published between 1985 and the end of May 2023 was searched, using three databases, namely, PubMed, Embase, and Scopus, using the words equine OR horse AND colic OR abdominal pain AND non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug AND meloxicam OR flunixin meglumine OR phenylbutazone OR firocoxib OR ketoprofen. Risk of bias was assessed with the SYRCLE risk of bias tool, and level of evidence scored according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-based Medicine. A total of 10 studies met the inclusion criteria. From those only one study judged pain with a validated pain score, and a high risk of bias was identified due to the presence of selection, performance, and “other” types of bias. Therefore, caution is required in the interpretation of results from individual studies. To date, the evidence on analgesic efficacy to determine whether one drug is more potent than another regarding the treatment of abdominal pain in horses is sparse

Treatment of chronic hepatitis C with recombinant interferon alpha.

We studied the clinical course and the effect of alfa interferon treatment in sixty-six patients of Southern Italy suffering from chronic hepatitis C virus. The patients were randomly assigned to the control group (33 patients without treatment) or to the group treated with 3MU of interferon three times a week for six months. Alanine transaminase (ALT) levels normalized in 17 of the 33 treated subjects (52%) within two months of treatment. Seven of these "responders" relapsed at the end of the six-month treatment period, but ALT normalized in these patients after resumption of interferon at the same dosage. None of the non responders on 3MU for four months showed improvement even when the dose was increased to 6MU. Our results coincide with other reports on interferon treatment in hepatitis C virus. Further studies are required to clarify whether or not higher doses at the onset of treatment increase the number of responders and decrease the frequency of relapses

Iperuricemia induced by fructose load in liver cirrhosis.

The intravenous administration of fructose in healthy subjects may induce an increase of blood uric acid and the urinary excretion of urate and xanthine as a result of hepatic adenosine triphosphate (ATP) breakdown. These changes are partially reversed by ATP resynthesis. We studied the effect of fructose load (0.5 g/kg body weight) on the products of ATP metabolism, and the interference of fructose on the galactose test in 10 patients with well compensated cirrhosis compared with 10 healthy controls. The fructose and the fructose/galactose loads induced a significantly greater increase of plasma uric acid in cirrhotics than in controls, with a 60 minute peak in the cirrhotics. Urinary excretion of urate and xanthines was significantly increased (p less than 0.001) only in the cirrhotics after the fructose/galactose load. As expected, the galactose elimination capacity (GEC) calculated with the galactose test, was lower in these patients than in controls. Fructose infusion before galactose did not significantly modify the GEC in either of the two groups compared. The higher uric acid increase induced by fructose in the blood of cirrhotic patients seems to be a good marker of the energy crisis of the diseased liver whereby it is unable to efficiently resynthesize ATP from its breakdown products