Veterinary anesthesia
[1][2] A veterinarian or a Registered Veterinary Technician administers these drugs to minimize stress, destructive behavior, and the threat of injury to both the patient and the doctor.
[7] To become an ACVAA board-certified Diplomate, veterinarians must have at least one year of clinical practice experience followed by three years of anesthesia residency training under the supervision of ACVAA Diplomates, have accepted for publication a scientific peer-reviewed research article, and passed both a written and clinical competency examination.
In many academic institutions, anesthesia technicians are involved in working with and teaching veterinary students as well as supervising anesthetized cases.
[2] In addition, certain diagnostic procedures require anesthesia, notably stomach or airway endoscopy, bone marrow sampling, and occasionally ultrasound.
Aggressive animals may require anesthesia in order to handle and perform a physical exam or obtain blood for testing.
Exotic animals frequently require anesthesia for simple procedures (such as taking a radiograph or catheter placement) due to lack of domesticity.
[4] Animals may require anesthesia for therapeutic procedures, such as urinary catheterization to relieve obstruction, injection into a mass, or removing fluid from the eye to treat glaucoma.
A one-year study in a teaching hospital shows that dogs and cats typically experience a 1 in 9 chance of anesthetic complications, with a 1 in 233 risk of death.
Horses, due to their complex physiology as performance animals, suffer a number of difficulties that can complicate anesthesia.
The number of complications related to fractures or myopathies are approximately 32%[14] Most procedures in ruminants can be performed standing under sedation and/or local anesthesia.
Anesthesia of exotic animals (guinea pigs, rabbits, birds) is challenging and the higher peri-anesthetic mortality in these species compared to dogs and cats, attests to this fact.
For example, the anatomy of the respiratory system of birds, guinea pigs, and reptiles makes it difficult to induce and maintain anesthesia solely with inhalation agents such as isoflurane and sevoflurane.
Anesthetics can only be provided to a patient after a full physical examination, evaluation of temperament, and an overview of medical history are completed.
[2] Isoflurane is the most common inhalant used in laboratory and veterinary clinic settings, as it is easily delivered through nose cones or intubation tubes depending on the species and size of the patient.
[17] Alpha-2 receptor agonist drugs such as xylazine, romifidine, detomidine, and medetomidine, are used frequently in veterinary species of all sizes but are rarely used in people.
[16] Opioids are commonly used in both human and animal medicine, as they bind to different receptors in the brain and spinal cord to produce varying effects.
[16] These drugs, including Oxymorphone, Morphine, Fentanyl, Methadone, Buprenorphine, and Butorphanol, have been highly used in veterinary anesthesia due to their sedative and analgesic properties, despite their side effects.
In human medicine, an opioid-free protocol has been employed due to its highly addictive properties and medical complications.
Veterinary medicine is in the process of adopting this protocol, as recent studies conducted by Donna M. White and other colleagues to develop a similar procedure and reduce the use of opioids.
[19] Non-steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs, or NSAIDs, are widely known for their analgesic properties, as they can reduce inflammation and manage a variety of pain levels.
[16] These drugs act on specific enzymes in the body that are responsible for producing hormones and proteins that aid in the control of pain and inflammation.
[16] Local anesthetic drugs like Lidocaine, Bupivacaine, Ropivacaine, and Proparacaine block sodium channels, providing relief of pain from those nerves.
[16] Since sodium channels are closed, the neurons can not fire and therefore no signals are sent to the brain and spinal cord, reducing pain levels.
Local anesthetics are commonly used in combination with anti-inflammatory drugs and opioids or alpha-2 receptor agonists to provide better pain relief and safer anesthesia.
This level is not a complete loss of consciousness, but a slowing of heart rate and behavior to make the animals easier to handle.
Subcutaneous injections occur when the needle is inserted between the skin and muscle, allowing the drug to be absorbed into the bloodstream over a prolonged period.
These two routes provide a larger variety in responses in one breed due to the differences in absorption rates through tissue.
