Interpreting cranial abdominal coverage after caudal epidural local anesthetic administration in dogs and cats.

Caudal epidural local anesthetic administration is used in dogs and cats and may be interpreted as contributing to cranial abdominal coverage, but favorable perioperative outcomes do not identify the cranial extent or completeness of the local-anesthetic block. This conceptual analysis distinguishes anatomical distribution, functional attenuation of predefined stimuli, physiological tolerance, and composite perioperative clinical performance. In feline ovarian surgery, 0.3 ml/kg regimens have produced heterogeneous clinical outcomes, whereas target-oriented CT mapping did not show uniform bilateral T10-T11 foraminal reach even with cumulative iohexol volumes of 0.75-1.0 ml/kg. Differences in injectate, dosing sequence, and endpoint preclude a direct dose-response comparison, but the magnitude of this discrepancy makes consistent complete bilateral coverage after 0.3 ml/kg a less plausible explanation for favorable outcomes. Canine data support prospective testing of a 0.6 ml/kg dose-volume regimen; feline data support comparison of 1.0 ml/kg as an adequacy-oriented candidate with 0.75 ml/kg as a lower comparator. Future studies should aim to connect target-oriented anatomical mapping, procedure-relevant functional testing, physiological assessment, and clinical evaluation using closely matched regimens, with any necessary differences made explicit.