Anesthesiology & Pain Management

The electrocardiogram is a useful monitoring tool, but its proper use requires training. It provides a heart rate and a picture of the electrical activity of the heart muscle. The anesthetist should be trained to recognize many commonly encountered intraoperative arrhythmias (e.g., multifocal and unifocal ventricular premature complexes, atrioventricular blockade, ventricular tachycardia, etc.) and the veterinarian should be prepared to treat arrhythmias when they occur (if necessary).

Anesthetic and pain related mortality would appear to be an easily quantifiable statistic that could be used to measure the outcome of the profession's current anesthetic practices. However, to rely solely on death rate as the measure of the quality of anesthetic care provided is inadequate.

Alpha 2 adrenergic agonists bind to alpha 2 receptors located in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord and brainstem, modulating the release of substance P, calcitonin gene-related peptide and various other neurotransmitters involved in rostral transmission of nociceptive information.

Clients frequently express concern about the anesthesia their dogs or cats need for professional oral evaluation and care.

For our local anesthetic blocks, we use a combination of lidocaine (quick onset, short duration) and bupivacaine (slow onset, long duration) with or without buprenorphine (acts at peripheral opioid receptors).

Two team members sound off about the recent California declaw bans.

Put yourself in others' shoes, paws, hooves or claws

Dr. Robin Downing has built a comprehensive osteoarthritis pain management system that uses a combination of modalities.

Certain cases of cancer may respond well to conservative analgesic therapy initially but eventually require multimodal analgesia.

A Q&A with veterinary anesthesiologist Dr. Kurt Grimm

Dr. Robin Downing discusses the advancement of pain management in animals.

This on-demand AVMA course by Dr. Nora S. Matthews provides an overview on achieving analgesia and balanced anesthesia and also reviews common complications and their treatment. (1 CE credit)

This on-demand AVMA course by Dr. Daniel M. Weary reviews some of the recent research on pain assessment and detection in cattle. (1 CE credit)

This on-demand AVMA course by Dr. Jacqueline R. Davidson identifies some factors that must be considered when designing a rehabilitation program for an animal following surgery. (1 CE credit)

Osteoarthritis and cervical pain can present with clinical. Almost all skeletal preparations of horses over 18 years old have evidence of arthritic changes.

Managing postoperative pain should rank as a top concern for team members and pet owners. Follow these position-specific guidelines to educate clients and help keep their pets comfortable.

Many of our patients in veterinary dentistry are older or have compromised core body functions.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the most widely used analgesic drug class in human and veterinary medicine.

Opioids provide both analgesia and sedation.

There are four main goals for anesthesia in the ophthalmic patient.

There are a variety of options for providing analgesia to veterinary patients in the peri-anesthetic period.

The respiratory system is one of the most important physiologic systems that the anesthetist can affect during an anesthetic event.

The main considerations for anesthesia of the critical patient really are the same as for most other patients.

Nonsteroidal antiinflamatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used in veterinary medicine for a variety of reasons including the management of acute postoperative pain and chronic pain associated with degenerative joint disease among other conditions.

Understanding how to design an anesthetic protocol is essential for the veterinary technician.

Once the dental prophylaxis is completed, the patient's mouth has been charted, and a full series of intraoral radiographs is ready for evaluation, some patients may have already been under anesthesia for over an hour.

The challenge of pain assessment in animals lies in the very concept of pain itself.

Because the entire CNS is heavily invested with opioid receptors that mediate central and spinal analgesia, the most effective class of analgesics is the pure agonist opioids, i.e. drugs such as morphine, hydromorphone, oxymorphone, etc.

The greek god "Morpheus" was the namesake for morphine. Morpheus was the god of dreams.

In addition to considering staffing, equipment and scheduling, the practice should look closely at the anesthesia protocols and applications currently employed within the practice.