Anesthesia for the dog with heartworm disease: a brief, practical review

Abstract

Dogs with heartworm disease may present for procedures that require anesthesia. This article is a brief, practical review of anesthetic techniques for dogs with heartworm. Dogs with heartworm, such as in a shelter that undergo spay and neuter procedures, may be safely anesthetized prior to heartworm treatment. The dog presenting with caval syndrome may require emergent anesthesia for extraction of the heartworms; anesthetic drugs and potential adverse effects are discussed. The anesthetic agents that have been used are discussed.

Efficacy and tolerability of the American Heartworm Society therapeutic protocol in dogs affected by heartworm disease without caval syndrome

“…Although the reasons for this discrepancy are not immediately clear, several factors may have contributed, at least in part, to the low complication rate in our dogs. First, some dogs received a sedative [preferentially using the anaesthetic drugs suggested for dogs with HWD (Quandt, 2023)] prior to melarsomine administration to minimise patient discomfort and facilitate proper injection into the belly of the epaxial muscle. In our experience, this is particularly important in uncooperative dogs as, without sedatives, there is the risk of injecting melarsomine while the dog is moving.…”

Interventional Heartworm Extraction in Two Dogs: The Clinical Application of Impedance Cardiography

“…In caval syndrome, pharmacological treatment may trigger unwanted immune responses and blood clot formation as a result of deceased HWs [6]. As a result, surgical extraction is preferred for managing severe HW disease [4,7,8]. As HW directly affects the cardiovascular system, patients are typically classified as 'at-risk' for anesthesia [9].…”

“…As HW directly affects the cardiovascular system, patients are typically classified as 'at-risk' for anesthesia [9]. The monitoring of the cardiovascular system is essential for safe surgery and anesthesia [7]. However, despite the anticipated CO changes, the CO during and after extraction surgery has not been investigated to date.…”