Recovery after General Anaesthesia in Adult Horses:A Structured Summary of the Literature

Recovery remains the most dangerous phase of general anaesthesia in horses. The objective of this publication was to perform a structured literature review including levels of evidence (LoE) of each study with the keywords “recovery anaesthesia horse”, entered at once, in the search browsers PubMed and Web of Science. The two authors independently evaluated each candidate article. A final list with 444 articles was obtained on 5 April 2021, classified as: 41 “narrative reviews/expert opinions”, 16 “retrospective outcome studies”, 5 “surveys”, 59 “premedication/sedation and induction drugs”, 27 “maintenance with inhalant agents”, 55 “maintenance with total intravenous anaesthesia (TIVA)”, 3 “TIVA versus inhalants”, 56 “maintenance with partial intravenous anaesthesia (PIVA)”, 27 “other drugs used during maintenance”, 18 “drugs before/during recovery”, 18 “recovery systems”, 21 “respiratory system in recovery”, 41 “other factors”, 51 “case series/reports” and 6 “systems to score recoveries”. Of them, 167 were LoE 1, 36 LoE 2, 33 LoE 3, 110 LoE 4, 90 LoE 5 and 8 could not be classified based on the available abstract. This review can be used as an up-to-date compilation of the literature about recovery after general anaesthesia in adult horses that tried to minimise the bias inherent to narrative reviews

Anesthetic and analgesic management of a skunk (Mephitis mephitis) undergoing a laminectomy for cauda equina compression

A 6-year-old, male striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) weighing 5.9 kg was anesthetized for diagnostic imaging procedures and subsequently for a laminectomy at level L6/S1 as treatment of lumbosacral stenosis. On both occasions, anesthesia was induced by a face mask using 5% isoflurane in oxygen. After endotracheal intubation, anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane in oxygen. When necessary, intermittent positive pressure ventilation was instituted. For the surgical intervention, analgesia was provided with pre-operative carprofen, perioperative intravenous infusion of fentanyl and postoperative buprenorphine. The constant rate infusion of fentanyl provided a sufficient level of analgesia and reduced the amount of isoflurane needed. Hypoxemia occurred at the end of surgery and was successfully treated using a vital capacity manoeuvre. The recovery from both anesthetic procedures was smooth and uneventful and the surgical intervention was successful. Three weeks after surgery the skunk was able to move the pelvic limbs voluntarily

Anesthetic management for the correction of a patent ductus arteriosus by means of either surgical ligation or transarterial occlusion in dogs

Patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) is one of the most common congenital vascular abnormalities in the dog. In veterinary medicine, surgical ligation (SL) and transarterial occlusion (TO) are two possible treatments that require general anesthesia. Two 4-month-old dogs were anesthetized for the correction of PDA, one by SL and the other by TO. Two different anesthetic and analgesic protocols were used, and were chosen to avoid potential complications. This case report describes two possible anesthetic approaches for PDA corrective surgery (SL and TO)

Anesthesie met α2-agonisten bij de lama: een literatuuroverzicht aangevuld met eigen onderzoek

Many articles on anesthesia in llamas have been published Xylazme, combined with ketamine is the most frequently used injectable anesthetic protocol and it warrants an effective and reliable anesthesia to perform short procedures The use of other (alpha(2)-agonists is far less documented in the literature A study was carried out to evaluate and compare the anesthetic and cardiorespiratory effects of intramuscular medetomidine-ketamine and dexmedetomidine-ketamine in llamas The induction of anesthesia, cardiorespiratory parameters and the recovery time were similar in both groups However, during recovery, significantly more ataxia was observed in the llamas that received medetomidine than in the llamas that received dexmedetomidin

An alternative for one lung ventilation in an adult horse requiring thoracotomy

In order to provide one lung ventilation in an anesthetized adult horse undergoing thoracoscopy and exploratory thoracotomy, an alternative to the described techniques was developed using a homemade endobronchial blocker construction. An orifice (with a diameter of 1 cm) was made 15 cm distally to the proximal end of a standard 28 mm ID endotracheal tube (ETT) allowing the placement of a standard broncho-alveolar catheter. The adapted ETT was advanced up to the larynx in the anesthetized horse. Prior to the intubation of the trachea, the broncho-alveolar catheter was passed through the ETT and positioned into the left main bronchus under endoscopic guidance. If it would have been required, the cuff of the broncho-alveolar catheter could have been inflated, allowing OLV. However, one lung ventilation was not required during the surgical procedure