Pre-anaesthesia preparation in cats and dogs – recent evidence

The foundation of veterinary anaesthesia is a veterinary nurse or technician who is a safe anaesthetist. A steady evolution of knowledge in the field of veterinary anaesthesia has made anaesthesia much more than merely using drugs to provide immobilisation. Increased knowledge of anatomy, physiology, and pharmacology; animals living longer lives; improved understanding of disease treatments; and performing more complex surgical procedures have all lead to improved methods of anaesthetic delivery for animals. These improvements in veterinary anaesthesia, along with the development of new drugs, equipment and techniques has caused an exponential growth in the knowledge and skills required to provide the best care to animals under anaesthesia.

This paper will revise the risk of morbidity and mortality in veterinary anaesthesia as well as review some of the more recent scientific literature on checklists, low-stress handling, fasting and pre-anaesthetic laboratory testing.

Although this paper focuses on pre-anaesthesia preparation, it is important to understand factors that affect complications related to anaesthesia. Several studies have been published determining the risk factors in anaesthesia, the number of deaths that occur in anaesthetised patients, the risk of anaesthetic death based on the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) physical status classification system (2020) and the time during anaesthesia where an animal is most likely to die.