Normal Values and Incidence of Cardiorespiratory Complications in Dogs During General Anaesthesia. A Review of 1281 Cases

This paper describes the cardiorespiratory variables and the incidence of anaesthetic complications in dogs. For this, a retrospective study of 1281 anaesthesias was performed. Heart rate (HR), non-invasive mean arterial (MAP), systolic (SP) and diastolic pressures (DP), invasive mean arterial (IMAP), systolic (ISP) and diastolic pressures (IDP), central venous pressure (CVP), respiratory rate (RR), tidal volume (V(T)), minute volume (V(M)), end-tidal CO(2) (EtCO(2)), arterial oxygen saturation (SpO(2)), temperature (T) and death are reported. Data were described both globally and separately for each ASA (American Society of Anaesthesiologists classification) status. An ANOVA and a Tukey's test were used for comparing the different ASA status' values (alpha=0.05). During anaesthetic maintenance, the mean +/- SD of the studied variables were: HR: 91+/-27 bpm. MAP: 86+/-24 mmHg. IMAP: 80+/-22 mmHg. SP: 114+/-25 mmHg. ISP: 109+/-26 mmHg. DP: 67+/-23 mmHg. IDP: 66+/-22 mmHg. CVP: 5+/-3 mmHg. RR: 19+/-11 rpm. V(T): 14+/-7 ml/kg. V(M): 191+/-93 ml/kg/min. EtCO(2): 40+/-8 mmHg. T: 37.1+/-1.7 degrees C. ASA III and ASA IV patients, compared with those with ASA I, showed higher values of HR, RR, V(T) and V(M) and lower in IMAP, CVP, EtCO(2), SpO(2) and T. The most frequent complications were bradycardia (36.3% of the patients), hypotension (37.9%), hypoventilation (63.4%), hypoxia (16.4%), hypothermia (4.8%) and death (0.9%). Cardiorespiratory complications frequently occur in dogs during general anaesthesia.