Abstract Accepted!

I realize there hasn't been much news lately as we have been awaiting news on the submission of the abstract to the annual meeting of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia. Well the good news is that the abstract has been accepted and I will be presenting the results of the study at the conference in September. Here is the abstract:

Changes in temperature, serum biochemistry values, and recovery parameters were compared after infusion of amino acids (AA) or lactated Ringer’s solution (LRS) in dogs undergoing ovariohysterectomy (OVH).

In a prospective, randomized study, 20 healthy dogs, received 10% AA at 8 ml kg-1 hr-1 and LRS at 2 ml kg-1 hr-1 (AA, n=10) or LRS at 10 ml kg-1 hr-1 (CG, n=10) during 90 minutes of anesthesia for OVH. Dogs received similar anesthetic protocols. A rectal thermometer inserted to a standardized depth recorded body temperature (BT) at 5-minute intervals during anesthesia and for 60 minutes after extubation. Time to extubation and shivering during recovery were noted. Serum samples were obtained for biochemical analysis prior to anesthesia (T0), at the end of anesthesia (T90), and at 18 hours after anesthesia (T18h). Data were analyzed with a Friedman, ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis, Fisher’s exact, or t-test. P<0.05 was used for significance.

BT decreased a mean ± SD of -2.32 ± 0.71 °C in group AA and -3.04 ± 0.92 °C in group CG (P=0.02). Mean ± SD time to extubation was 5.9 ± 2.3 minutes in group AA and 9.5 ± 3.4 minutes in group CG (P=0.006). Thirty percent of dogs in group AA and 100% of dogs in group CG shivered during recovery (P=0.003). T90 glucose, insulin, and BUN were significantly higher than at T0 and T18h for group AA.

Dogs receiving an intraoperative infusion of AA had a smaller decrease in BT, extubated sooner, and shivered less than dogs receiving only LRS.