Partial intravenous anaesthesia in the horse: a review of intravenous agents used to supplement equine inhalation anaesthesia. Part 1: lidocaine and ketamine.

The research article is a review of various intravenous agents used to supplement inhalation anaesthesia in horses, with a particular focus on lidocaine and ketamine.

Objective of the Review

• The review aims to evaluate the use of different intravenous drugs as supplements to inhalational anaesthesia in horses.
• An important focus of this paper is understanding the effectiveness and potential downside of these supplemental agents, with specific emphasis on lidocaine and ketamine.

Methodology

• The authors conducted a literature review of papers available in databases such as PubMed and Web of Science.
• Specific search terms were used to obtain relevant literature, including “horse”, “inhalant anaesthesia”, “balanced anaesthesia”, “partial intravenous anaesthesia”, “lidocaine”, and “ketamine”.

Findings

• They discovered that varying drugs and their combinations could be administered systematically in anesthetized horses.
• The main goal here is to decrease the dosage of volatile agents, therefore improving the recovery and adding a multimodal analgesic approach—multiple methods used in combination to relieve pain.

Limitations

• The study identifies a few drawbacks and limitations of the current research body.
• There is an insufficient number of studies that fully explore whether these supplemental techniques actually help improve the horses’ cardiopulmonary status—the functioning of heart and lung systems.
• It is also noted that potential disadvantages of using such intravenous agents should be taken into consideration.

Conclusion

• Overall, though different intravenous agents appear to be a promising supplement to horse anesthesia, more research is needed to establish their efficacy, benefits and potential drawbacks, particularly in terms of improving cardiopulmonary status.