Assessment of unassisted recovery from repeated general isoflurane anesthesia in horses following post-anesthetic administration of xylazine or acepromazine or a combination of xylazine and ketamine

The effects of multiple anaesthetic episodes on equine recovery quality

“…Although there was a trend of longer recovery duration with later GA events (P = 0.09), the change was not significant. This may be because our horses were sedated with 100 mg of xylazine (0.22–0.25 mg/kg bwt) for each GA recovery and the median recovery duration ranged from 33 to 45 min, which is consistent with previous reports of recovery duration under xylazine sedation . Similarly, it could be an effect of using sevoflurane .…”

“…The ability of horses to learn how to recover from GA was first suggested in the literature by Valverde et al . When testing three different sedation protocols in a cross‐over design, they demonstrated improved equine GA recovery scores on the third GA recovery . Although it was not the main purpose of their study, they suggested that horses may learn to recover with experience.…”

“…to score nine parameters adapted from Valverde et al . that included: activity in lateral recumbency, move to sternal recumbency, activity in sternal recumbency, move to stand, strength, balance and coordination, knuckling, attitude, and overall quality of recovery with 0 mm representing the worst possible score and 100 mm representing the best possible score . A score was given for each parameter after watching the edited video of each GA recovery by placing a mark on a line between 0 mm and 100 mm corresponding to the score for that given parameter.…”

“…Video-recordings of the GA recoveries (n = 48) delivered on separate flash storage devices were scored by three diplomats of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia (B.S., M.L., E.M.), experienced with equine anaesthesia, on custom made scoring forms. Evaluators made their scores using a 100 mm VAS adapted from Hubbell et al to score nine parameters adapted from Valverde et al that included: activity in lateral recumbency, move to sternal recumbency, activity in sternal recumbency, move to stand, strength, balance and coordination, knuckling, attitude, and overall quality of recovery with 0 mm representing the worst possible score and 100 mm representing the best possible score [15,17]. A score was given for each parameter after watching the edited video of each GA recovery by placing a mark on a line between 0 mm and 100 mm corresponding to the score for that given parameter.…”

Comparison of the effects of ketamine and fentanyl-midazolam-medetomidine for sedation of rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

“…Previous studies in dogs and cats, using ketamine, did not report a difference in the quality of recovery compared to other anaesthetic protocols [ 55 , 56 ]. However the administration of ketamine to children and horses prior the end of anaesthesia resulted in a decrease in the quality of recovery in comparison with the use of α 2 -agonists, benzodiazepine or acepromazine [ 57 , 58 ].…”