Confidential enquiry of perioperative equine fatalities (CEPEF-1): preliminary results.

The research paper presents the initial results of the Confidential Enquiry into Perioperative Equine Fatalities (CEPEF-1), a study on the recovery outcomes of horses seven days after undergoing general anesthesia. The study reveals a mortality rate of 1.6%, with certain factors contributing to a higher risk of death.

Introduction and Methodology

• CEPEF-1 is a multi-institutional study that investigates the outcomes of horse recovery seven days after a general anaesthetic procedure. The study was conducted in response to a call-to-action by Steffey in 1991 demanding more detailed investigations into horse fatalities during or after surgery.
• The researchers gathered data from 6,255 general anaesthetic procedures performed on horses between February 1991 and March 1993. These data were contributed confidentially by 62 clinics.
• To make the analysis more accurate, they excluded 333 cases where the horse was euthanised or had a status unlabeled as ‘alive’ or ‘died’ at the end of the seven-day period.

Results

• The study shows an overall mortality rate of 1.6%, reflecting horses that died or were subjected to euthanasia within seven days of undergoing a general anaesthetic procedure due to perioperative complications.
• The researchers observed a decrease in the death rate to 0.9% when excluding all colic surgeries and deliveries of foals under general anaesthesia.
• They found that mares in the final trimester of pregnancy group had a significantly higher death risk ratio of 6.4. Furthermore, horses undergoing emergency abdominal procedures were at a higher risk (risk ratio = 12.9) compared to those undergoing ear, nose, or throat surgery.
• Within the category of orthopaedic surgeries, those requiring internal fixation were considered riskier (risk ratio = 3.2) than other miscellaneous orthopaedic surgeries.
• No significant difference in risk was found between different horse breeds.
• Lastly, it was observed that horses not placed in dorsal recumbency (on their backs) during surgery were at a lower death risk (risk ratio = 0.3-0.5) than those placed in this position.