The purpose of this study was to review ventilation and postoperative
analgesic technics in 137 dogs and 13 cats with congenital or acquired
heart disease. The animals were referred to the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University, U.S.A, for the following surgical interventions: correction of
patent ductus arteriosus (PDA-
ligation, 28%), cardiac catheterization with angiogram and angioplasty (22%), pacemaker implantation (18%), exploratory lateral
thoracotomy (8.7%), correction of right aortic arch ring anomaly (3.3%), correction of
subvalvular aortic stenosis (2.7%), correction of PDA with coil in patients with
mitral regurgitation and
congestive heart failure (2%),
pericardectomy and removal of heart base
tumor (2%), and
palliative surgery for
ventricular septal defect (VSD, 0.7%). Controlled ventilation was used in all animals during
thoracotomy.
Anesthesia was maintained over 2.3 +/- 1.3 hours by using either
isoflurane,
halothane,
propofol, or
diazepam-
ketamine in 64%, 32%, 2%, and 0.7% of animals, respectively. Postoperative
analgesia was necessary in 20% of animals and was provided by using different technics over several hours. The technics and respective percentages of animals in which they were used, were: intravenous
buprenorphine (3.3%), intercostal nerve blocks (8.7%), epidural
morphine (4%), and interpleural regional
analgesia (4%).