The study was done to compare the heart rate, arterial blood pressure, arterial blood gases, respiratory rate, body temperature, and behavior after subarachnoid administration of hyperbaric morphine (MorphineD10), buprenorphine (BuprenorphineD10), methadone (Methadone D10), and 10% dextrose (D10)
INTRODUCTIONCaudal spinal anesthesia or analgesia was first described in 1925 and is well established (PAPE & PITZSCHK, 1925;McLEOD & FRANK, 1927).Spinal analgesia is obtained with different drugs (VALVERDE et al., 1990; GOMEZ DE SEGURA et al., 1998). Although these are administered in the epidural or subarachnoid space, systemic effects occur due to absorption from the tissues (COUSINS & MATHER, 1984;SKARDA & MUIR, 1996;CHENG et al., 1999). Xylazine and its combination with lidocaine have been reported to produce none or minimal cardiovascular depression when epidurally (LeBLANC & CARON, 1990;LeBLANC & EBERHART, 1990;GRUBB et al., 1992;SKARDA & MUIR, 1996). Epidural detomidine in horses was found to produce cardiovascular depression and recumbency (SKARDA & MUIR, 1994;1996;WITTERN et al., 1998). Spinal ketamine produced sedation but no cardiovascular depression in horses (GOMEZ DE SEGURA et al., 1998). When compared to other drugs, opioids present advantages over local anesthetic and alpha-2 adrenergic agonists because