Cardiovascular effects of intravenous vatinoxan in wild boars (Sus scrofa) anaesthetised with intramuscular medetomidine‐tiletamine‐zolazepam

Abstract

Background: The potent sedative medetomidine is a commonly used adjunct for the immobilisation of non-domestic mammals. However, its use is associated with pronounced cardiovascular side effects, such as bradycardia, vasoconstriction and decreased cardiac output. We investigated the effects of the peripherally-acting alpha-2-adrenoceptor antagonist vatinoxan on cardiovascular properties in medetomidine-tiletamine-zolazepam anaesthetised wild boar (Sus scrofa). Methods: Twelve wild boars, anaesthetised twice with medetomidine (0.1 mg/kg) and tiletamine/zolazepam (2.5 mg/kg) IM in a randomised, crossover study, were administered (0.1 mg/kg) vatinoxan or an equivalent volume of saline IV (control). Cardiovascular variables, including heart rate (HR), mean arterial blood pressure (MAP), pulmonary artery pressure (PAP), pulmonary artery occlusion pressure (PAOP) and cardiac output (CO), were assessed 5 min prior to vatinoxan/saline administration until the end of anaesthesia 30 min later. Results: MAP (p < 0.0001), MPAP (p < 0.001) and MPAOP (p < 0.0001) significantly decreased from baseline after vatinoxan until the end of anaesthesia. HR increased significantly (p < 0.0001) from baseline after vatinoxan administration. However, the effect on HR subsided 3 min after vatinoxan. All variables remained constant after saline injection. There was no significant effect of vatinoxan or saline on CO. Conclusion: Vatinoxan significantly reduced systemic and pulmonary artery hypertension, induced by medetomidine in wild boar. K E Y W O R D Salpha-2-adrenergic agonists, blood pressure, medetomidine, pulmonary artery pressure, vatinoxan, wild boar (Sus scrofa)This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Comparison of the cardiovascular effects of immobilization with three different drug combinations in free-ranging African lions

“…Certain drugs may be good candidates for this purpose, for example, the peripheral α -adrenoceptor antagonist vatinoxan. Vatinoxan has limited ability to penetrate the blood–brain barrier and, when co-administered with α 2 -adrenoceptor agonists, it does not impact on the quality of muscle relaxation and sedation but attenuates the negative cardiovascular effects caused by these agonists ( Jaeger et al, 2019 ; Einwaller et al, 2020 , 2022 ).…”