Management of veterinary anaesthesia in small animals: A survey of current practice in Quebec

Abstract

ObjectiveTo describe how small animal anaesthesia is performed in French-speaking Eastern Canada, and the variations between practices, in particular based on practice type, veterinarian gender and experience. DesignObservational study, survey. Sample 156 respondents. ProcedureA questionnaire was designed to assess current small animal anaesthesia practices in French-speaking Eastern Canada, mainly in the province of Quebec. The questionnaire was available through SurveyMonkey, and consisted of four parts: demographic information about the veterinarians surveyed, evaluation and management of anaesthetic risk, anaesthesia procedure, monitoring and safety. Gender, year of graduation, and type of practice were tested as potential risk factors. Chi-square exact test was used to study relations between each risk factor, and the effect of the selected risk factor on each response of the survey. For ordinal data, the Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel test was used to maximize power. ResultsResponse rate over a period of 3 months was 20.85% (156 respondents). Overall, the way anaesthesia is performed by most respondents does not meet international guidelines, such as patient preparation and evaluation prior to anaesthesia, not using individualised protocols (for 41%), not obtaining intravenous access (12.4% use it for all their anaesthesia in cats, and 30.6% in dogs), lack of patient monitoring at certain intervals for 55% of the responses, PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.

Effect of Medetomidine, Dexmedetomidine, and Their Reversal with Atipamezole on the Nociceptive Withdrawal Reflex in Beagles

“…Medetomidine and dexmedetomidine are alpha-2 adrenoreceptor agonists routinely used to produce sedation and analgesia in dogs [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Medetomidine is a racemic mixture of two optical isomers, levomedetomidine and dexmedetomidine [ 5 ].…”

Management of veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia in small animals: A survey of English-speaking practitioners in Canada

“…For inferential statistical analysis, the selected demographic characteristics described in Part I, namely year of graduation and type of practice, were tested as potential risk factors influencing responses in the following sections. These factors were chosen based on the results of a previous study [ 6 ]. Indeed, they were likely to affect the results in the current study as well.…”

“…Several guidelines have been published, including recommendations for best practice in pre-anaesthetic work-up, anaesthetic monitoring, and analgesia [ 1 – 5 ]. A recently published survey described current French-speaking Eastern Canada veterinary anaesthesia management [ 6 ]. The authors concluded that the level of care in French-speaking Eastern Canada failed to meet published guidelines for several criteria.…”

“…The authors concluded that the level of care in French-speaking Eastern Canada failed to meet published guidelines for several criteria. This was the most concerning finding, especially regarding analgesia standard of care (client prompted optional analgesia for 29% of respondents) [ 6 ]. Furthermore, they found that several demographic factors such as the type of veterinary practice, either general practice (GP) or referral centre, the veterinarian’s gender and year of graduation influenced different aspects of anaesthesia [ 6 ].…”

“…This was the most concerning finding, especially regarding analgesia standard of care (client prompted optional analgesia for 29% of respondents) [ 6 ]. Furthermore, they found that several demographic factors such as the type of veterinary practice, either general practice (GP) or referral centre, the veterinarian’s gender and year of graduation influenced different aspects of anaesthesia [ 6 ]. It is currently unknown if this is unique to French-speaking veterinarians or if this situation is widespread across Canada or elsewhere in the world.…”