Advances in Veterinary Surgical, Anesthetic, and Patient Monitoring

Dear Colleagues,

Surgery and anesthesia in veterinary medicine are essential for a variety of procedures, from routine spaying and neutering to complex surgeries. The following is an overview of the process:

1. Pre-Surgery Evaluation: The veterinary team assesses the animal's health, reviews medical history, and may perform pre-operative blood tests to ensure the patient is fit for anesthesia and surgery.

2. Anesthesia Selection: Anesthesia protocols are tailored to the specific procedure and animal. General anesthesia is common, but local or regional anesthesia may be used for some procedures.

3. Induction: The animal is given medication to induce unconsciousness and muscle relaxation. The veterinary team closely monitors vital signs like heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels.

4. Maintenance: Anesthesia is maintained throughout the surgery to keep the animal unconscious and pain-free. Monitoring continues to ensure stability.

5. Surgical Procedure: The surgery is performed with precision, and the veterinary team takes precautions to minimize infection risk.

6. Monitoring: Vital signs are continuously monitored during surgery, including ECG, blood pressure, temperature, and respiration.

7. Recovery: After surgery, the animal is carefully monitored as it wakes up from anesthesia. Pain management is crucial during this phase.

8. Post-Operative Care: Post-operative care includes pain management, wound care, and monitoring for any complications.

9. Discharge: Once the animal is stable, it can be discharged with instructions for at-home care and follow-up appointments.

Veterinary anesthesiologists and trained technicians play a vital role in ensuring the safety and well-being of animals during surgery and anesthesia. Monitoring and maintaining anesthesia is critical to minimize risks and complications. Veterinary patient monitoring has changed significantly in recent years, becoming increasingly similar to human medicine. Fortunately, global veterinary medicine is undergoing specialization, so the number of operators specialized in anesthesia, ventilation, and pain therapy is increasing. Optimal anesthesia requires good patient monitoring and excellent intra- and post-operative analgesia. Patient monitoring must be continuous and follow increasingly higher standards. Analgesia during the surgical procedure is important because intraoperative pain can cause negative effects that prevent patient recovery. Effective operative pain control can be achieved with multimodal analgesia using a combination of agents with different mechanisms of action. Multimodal anesthesia includes drugs administered both systemically and regionally and is considered the most effective approach to provide pain relief. This type of anesthesia includes single or combination drugs administered at varying dosages, through varying routes, and for varying times; it is a less standardized approach but is better suited to individual patients’ needs. Furthermore, veterinary surgery has become very specialized. This has required an ever-increasing number of anesthetists. This Special Issue aims to present a collection of articles to improve the skills of operators in the surgical area and a point of reference for innovation and comparison. For this reason, this Special Issue is a good opportunity to improve various anesthesiologic aspects of our patients’ treatment. We encourage submissions in different areas, including different types of procedures: obstetric, orthopedic, oncological, etc.

Dr. Vincenzo Cicirelli
Matteo Burgio
Alice Carbonari
Guest Editors

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• surgery
• anesthesia
• analgesia
• pain management
• surgical procedure
• multimodal anesthesia
• anesthesiologic risk
• nociceptor
• anesthesia induction
• premedication
• opioid
• patient monitoring