Anesthetic recovery assisted by rope at three points in horses

Abstract

This study evaluated the quality of anesthesyc recovery of horses using a three-point assisted method. Sixty-eight horses (37 females and 31 males) of different breeds, age and weight submitted to general anesthesia for abdominal - ABD (n=15), arthroscopy - ART (n=17), other orthopedic - ORT (n=18) and miscellaneous - MIX (n=18) surgical procedures. Isoflurane resulted in shorter recovery time (67.4±25.7min) compared to halothane (88.0±37.8min). The mean duration (±SD) of anesthesia for ABD, ORT, ART and MIXgroups was 166.7 (±14), 54.9 (±5.9), 86.5 (±7.3) and 76.4 (±32.5) minutes (min) respectively. Quality of recovery wasn’t influenced by duration of anesthesia or by use of analgesic, sedative and/or anesthetic drugs or not (p>0.05). Mean standing time (TEst) during anesthetic recovery was 67.5 (±29.9) min in ABD, 44.4 (±27) min in ORT, 42.2 (±23.2) min in ART and 39 (±14.7) min in MIX group. Average number of attempts (Ast) to stand was 1.8 (±0.8) in ABD group, 3.1 (±4.7) in ORT, 1.8 (±1.2) in ART and 1.8 (±1.2) in MIX. Recovery time (TRec) in ABD group was 102.2 (±36.5) min, ORT 70.1 (±36.5) min, ART 72.2 (±24.8) min and MIX group 66.6 (±19.1) min. TRec differed (p<0.05) between ABDand other groups. Three-point assisted recoveryfrom anesthesia showed to be a safe procedure during horses’ recovery. This method is easy to apply and well tolerated by horses regardless of the surgical procedure.

Equipment‐related injuries associated with head and tail rope recovery in horses

“…As soon as the horse made an attempt to stand, first the head rope and then the tail rope were tightened to lead direction with the head rope and control stability with the tail rope (Arndt et al, 2020). A 3-point rope system has also been described where the tail rope is manually adjusted by a second operator (da Silva et al, 2018).…”