Technology plays a vital role in anesthetic safety. Since there are no anesthetics that are perfectly tolerated by all patients, in-depth monitoring equipment is essential. Anesthetic complications, while rare, almost always start out gradually. Early detection and prompt correction of these variations is necessary for safety should a problem occur. Our anesthetic protocols call for every patient to have heart rate, respiratory rate, pulse oximetry (percent of oxygen in the blood), EKG, and blood pressure monitored regardless of the age of the patient or the procedure being performed. As anesthetized patients lose the ability to maintain their body temperature, external warming devices are used to keep your pet warm throughout the procedure.

Just like people, animals feel pain. Studies on both animals and humans show that pain increases complications and delays healing and recovery. Therefore, all patients having surgery receive pain medications. As both human and animal studies also indicate that different types of pain meds used together are more effective, we routinely use multimodal therapies. Dr. Hornstein is a member of the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management, an international group of veterinarians dedicated to promoting, enhancing, and advancing pain management in animals.

One common question we get about anesthesia is how old does an animal have to be before they are unable to be safely anesthetized. The answer to this is that age is not a disease; therefore age is not a determinant as to whether anesthesia can be safely performed. Studies in animals have not shown an increase in complications based upon age. However, as animals age, concurrent diseases are more likely, hence why we require more stringent preoperative testing. At the Monroe Animal Hospital we routinely anesthetize geriatric animals, and Dr. Hornstein has even performed surgery on dogs and cats as old as nineteen years of age!