PULMONIC stenosis (PS) is a common congenital cardiac defect in dogs (Buchanan 1992). Depending on the type of stenosis and its severity, surgical management is required. Balloon valvuloplasty (BV) is a non-invasive surgical technique that has become commonly performed in veterinary medicine (Bussadori and others 2001).Several protocols to anaesthetise patients undergoing this procedure have been described. However, only one retrospective study (Ramos and others 2014) assessing and reporting the perioperative complications during BV has been published recently.The aim of this study was to describe the anaesthetic management used over the past years in a large referring European veterinary institution and to explore which major factors are associated with complications in dogs undergoing BV.Forty-six dogs in which PS was managed with BV were included in this study. Parameters included in the analysis were breed, age, sex, weight, American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) status, severity of the stenosis, systolic pressure gradient, heart remodelling, presence of heart failure, patient medication, concurrent problems, use of NSAIDs, drugs used for premedication, induction and maintenance of anaesthesia, use of intermittent positive pressure ventilation (IPPV), use of other drugs, hypotension (mean arterial blood pressure <60 mmHg for at least five minutes), bradycardia (heart rate <50 beats per minute (bpm)), tachycardia (heart rate >140 bpm), systemic hypertension (systolic arterial blood pressure >160 mmHg for at least five minutes), arrhythmias, treatment of complications, temperature at the end of procedure, length of procedure, drugs used during recovery, morbidity (appearance of any complication during the procedure) and mortality within 48 hours.Statistical analysis was performed using statistical software (IBM SPSS Statistics V.20.0.0). Normality of data was assessed with histograms and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests. Data were described with mean and sd, median and range or frequency ( per cent) as appropriate. Chi-squared, Fisher's exact or Mann-Whitney U test was used to analyse the data. A P<0.05 was considered as significant.The most commonly represented breed was the cocker spaniel (eight patients, 17 per cent), followed by the boxer and Cavalier King Charles (three patients, 6 per cent each of them). The median age was 11.5 months (range 2-85 months) and median weight was 10.3 kg (range 2.5-65.5 kg).PS without other cardiac diseases was the most frequently diagnosis (30 patients, 65 per cent). The severity of stenosis, according to Bussadori's classification (Bussadori and others 2000), was severe ( peak gradient above 80 mm Hg corresponding to velocity over 4.5 m/s) in 39 patients (85 per cent) and moderate ( peak gradient from 50 to 80 mmHg corresponding to a velocity between 3.5 and 4.5 m/s) in the other seven patients (15 per cent). Forty patients (87 per cent) showed some degree of heart remodelling although only five patients had developed heart failure before the procedure. S...
