Tongue lacerations in a geriatric dog after bilateral inferior alveolar nerve blocks with bupivacaine

This report describes a 13‐year‐old, 41.5 kg, male neutered, Rhodesian ridgeback that had lacerated its tongue on postanaesthetic recovery after administration of bilateral inferior alveolar nerve blocks (IANBs). IANBs are a commonly used locoregional anaesthesia technique for oral and dental procedures. An often‐mentioned complication is tongue laceration; however, there are no case reports of such events in the literature for cats or dogs. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first case report of such an event. This complication was attributed to the administration of bilateral IANBs using 1.5 ml of 0.5 per cent bupivacaine per block. Other differentials included lateral tongue positioning on extubation, emergence delirium or dysphoria and a presumptive degenerative myelopathy.