No abstract

Multimodal analgesia is the foundation of opioid-sparing analgesia protocols in major surgery, being locoregional anaesthesia their keystone. Its aim is to provide adequate analgesia while minimising opioid requirements, and thus opioid-related adverse effects. The blossoming of ultrasound-guided fascial plane blocks offers a new spectrum of safer and simpler alternatives to traditional locoregional anaesthesia techniques. This report describes the anaesthetic management of a dog and a cat that underwent bilateral thoracotomy for treatment of chylothorax. The multimodal analgesia protocol consisted of preoperative methadone, ultrasound-guided serratus plane and erector spinae plane blocks, and epidural catheter for postoperative analgesia management. The combination of these techniques allowed for a reduction of perioperative opioid requirements, good-quality recovery and opioid-free analgesia in the postoperative period.

No abstract

Technical complications associated with the use of epidural catheters account for a significant proportion of failures of this technique. Misplacement and knotting of epidural catheters are complications rarely described in both human and veterinary literature. The method used to identify and confirm the correct position of the catheter in the epidural space plays an important role in preventing such complications. However, some of the techniques commonly used can still lead to an equivocal catheter placement. We report a case where loss of resistance, positive analgesic effect and motor deficits of both hindlimbs masked a misplaced epidural catheter in a dog, with knotting of the catheter occurring when removal was attempted.