Supplemental Anesthesia & Analgesia Information This Supplemental
Supplemental Anesthesia & Analgesia Information This supplemental information was prepared by members of the Veterinary Task Force to Advance Spay-Neuter (VTFASN) as a companion piece to the Association of Shelter Veterinarian’s Veterinary Medical Care Guidelines for Spay-Neuter Programs (Guidelines). Anesthesia and Analgesia Guidelines for High Quality, High Volume Spay/Neuter Initiatives Andrea L. Looney, DVM, DACVA, Leslie D. Appel, DVM, Mark W. Bohling, DVM, PhD, DACVS, Y. Karla Rigdon-Brestle, DVM, Philip A. Bushby, DVM, MS, DACVS, Nancy J. Ferguson, DVM, Brenda Griffin, DVM, MS, DACVIM, David J. Sweeney, DVM, Kathy A. Tyson, DVM, Adriana H. Voors, DVM, Sara C. White, DVM; Edited by Joan E. Dempsey, MFA INTRODUCTION As a recent ad campaign for inhalant anesthesia stated, “There’s a lot more to good anesthesia than simply life and death or waking from the event (1).” In other words, the fact that an animal makes it through surgery is no longer a good criterion by which to measure adequacy in our choices of anesthetic drugs, monitoring or stabilization. We understand now that what we have done or failed to do pre-, intra- or postoperatively has sometimes caused animals to succumb to perioperative disease within weeks or months of the surgery. Our historical presumptions of successful anesthesia, indicated by animals that appear stable under anesthesia or wake up quickly or well, are no longer adequate. Why is this so? The answer is relatively simple. Despite all our advancements within the fields of both human and veterinary anesthesiology, and regardless of whether we use simple mask inhalants or potent premeds such as Xylazine, anesthesia remains a profound cardiorespiratory depressant event which is capable of causing disease and death.
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