title: Evaluation of the analgesic effect of lidocaine and bupivacaine used to provide a brachial plexus block for forelimb surgery in 10 dogs.
abstract: Twenty adult dogs weighing between 1.4 and 53.5 kg and aged between six months and nine years were anaesthetised and the brachial plexus was localised with the aid of a nerve stimulator. In 10 of the dogs a brachial plexus block was induced with a mixture of lidocaine and bupivacaine and the other 10 each received 0.25 ml/kg saline as a control. The end-tidal isoflurane concentration was maintained between 1.3 and 1.4 per cent during surgery for carpal arthrodesis or a fracture of the radius or ulna. Acute heart rate or blood pressure increases of 20 per cent or more were treated with 1 microg/kg fentanyl intravenously. Postoperatively, signs of pain were scored by a single blinded observer at hourly intervals until eight hours after the block had been induced, on a scale from 0 to 18. Dogs with pain scores above 5 received 0.1 to 0.2 mg/kg methadone intravenously, repeated as necessary. During surgery the control dogs received significantly more fentanyl (median 0.05 microg/kg/minute, range 0.02 to 0.20 microg/kg/minute) than the group given local anaesthetic (median 0 microg/kg/minute, range 0 to 0.02 microg/kg/minute). Postoperatively, the control group required significantly more methadone (median 0.2 mg/kg, range 0.1 to 1 mg/kg) than the treated group (median 0 mg/kg, range 0 to 0.13 mg/kg).
authors.affiliation: Department for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Division of Anaesthesiology, University of Berne, CH 3012 Berne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wenger
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Moens
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jäggin
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schatzmann
mesh_terms: D000698:Analgesia / Q000662:veterinary*; D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D000818:Animals; D002045:Bupivacaine; D004285:Dogs; D004341:Drug Evaluation; D005260:Female; D005552:Forelimb / Q000601:surgery*; D008012:Lidocaine; D008297:Male; D009407:Nerve Block / Q000662:veterinary*
chemical_list: D000779:Anesthetics, Local; D008012:Lidocaine; D002045:Bupivacaine