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Incidence of post‐anaesthetic arrhythmias in the dog
Author(s) -
BUSS DARYL D.,
HESS ROBERT E.,
WEBB ALISTAIR I.,
SPENCER KAREN R.
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of small animal practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.7
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1748-5827
pISSN - 0022-4510
DOI - 10.1111/j.1748-5827.1982.tb02074.x
Subject(s) - medicine , anesthesia , incidence (geometry) , general anaesthesia , electrocardiography , cardiology , electrical conduction system of the heart , cardiac arrhythmia , atrial fibrillation , physics , optics
A total of 50 dogs, judged to be free of cardiovascular disease on the basis of physical and electrocardiographic (ECG) examination, underwent ECG monitoring during recovery from general anaesthesia. Fifteen of these dogs (30 per cent) developed some form of cardiac arrhythmia during the recovery period. The arrhythmias most frequently observed were premature ventricular contractions and atrioventricular conduction defects of varying degrees of severity. The observed arrhythmias had ceased by the end of the observation period and did not require specific therapy. There was no apparent correlation between the duration of anaesthesia, the type of medical or surgical procedure and the development of arrhythmias. However, the dogs developing arrhythmias were older than those that did not. The relatively high frequency of occurrence of cardiac arrhythmias must be considered in the evaluation of ECG data from dogs being monitored during recovery from anaesthesia.