[Sedation and anesthesia in dogs and cats with cardiovascular diseases. III. Ventilation, respiratory monitoring, treatment for postoperative pain].

The purpose of this study was to review ventilation and postoperative analgesic technics in 137 dogs and 13 cats with congenital or acquired heart disease. The animals were referred to the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at The Ohio State University, U.S.A, for the following surgical interventions: correction of patent ductus arteriosus (PDA-ligation, 28%), cardiac catheterization with angiogram and angioplasty (22%), pacemaker implantation (18%), exploratory lateral thoracotomy (8.7%), correction of right aortic arch ring anomaly (3.3%), correction of subvalvular aortic stenosis (2.7%), correction of PDA with coil in patients with mitral regurgitation and congestive heart failure (2%), pericardectomy and removal of heart base tumor (2%), and palliative surgery for ventricular septal defect (VSD, 0.7%). Controlled ventilation was used in all animals during thoracotomy. Anesthesia was maintained over 2.3 +/- 1.3 hours by using either isoflurane, halothane, propofol, or diazepam-ketamine in 64%, 32%, 2%, and 0.7% of animals, respectively. Postoperative analgesia was necessary in 20% of animals and was provided by using different technics over several hours. The technics and respective percentages of animals in which they were used, were: intravenous buprenorphine (3.3%), intercostal nerve blocks (8.7%), epidural morphine (4%), and interpleural regional analgesia (4%).