Congress on Demand 2021: Anaesthesia and Analgesia

Vet perspective: Although the nursing care for the brachycephalic patient is the most vital part of hospitalisation and peri-anaesthetic care, there are recent clinical investigations that may help guide veterinary care for brachycephalics undergoing anaesthesia. This lecture helps to guide our anaesthetic care, provide brachycephalic checklists whilst incorporating the recent updates into our management to help minimise complications and provide effective treatment if they are encountered.

Vet nurse perspective: Brachycephalic breeds are now all too common in our veterinary practices whether it be general practice or referral. At some point, regardless of the reason, they will require anaesthesia for a procedure. This session aims to provide awareness of the common pitfalls we as nurses may encounter. The nursing responsibilities to these patients throughout all the stages of the anaesthetic are fundamental to ensuring these tricky patients survive and walk away! They can be some of the riskiest patients to monitor and manage during the anaesthetic period but with good preparation, a solid basic protocol and fantastic teamwork, there should be no reason why these patients need to be any more troublesome. Some key preparations and protocols needed to ensure the safety of these patients are discussed, together with increasing the awareness of common pitfalls that might occur and what to do during them.