Preoperative administration of hydroxyethyl starch or hypertonic saline to horses with colic.

This research article is about a trial comparing the effects of two preoperative treatments, hydroxyethyl starch (pentastarch) and hypertonic saline, on horses with colic requiring surgery. It concludes that pentastarch results in a better Cardiac Index (CI) than hypertonic saline for up to 150 minutes after anesthetic induction.

Objective and Methods

• The research’s objective was to determine whether preoperative administration of hypertonic saline or pentastarch has similar effects on intraoperative hemodynamics in horses undergoing colic surgery.
• The researchers set up a prospective, randomized, open-label clinical trial. Thirty horses meeting certain clinicopathologic criteria—such as a high packed cell volume or blood lactate concentration—were enrolled in the study with their owners’ consent.
• The horses were randomly assigned to receive either hypertonic saline or pentastarch before induction of anesthesia.
• Hemodynamic measurements, including Cardiac Output (CO) and Stroke Volume (SV), were taken every thirty minutes during anesthesia. The CO was measured using the lithium dilution method, and both the CO and SV were indexed by the horses’ body weight.
• The data collected were analysed using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), and post hoc comparisons were performed using the Bonferroni test.

Results

• The results showed that the cardiac index (CI) was higher in the pentastarch group, compared to the hypertonic saline group, for 150 minutes after anesthetic induction.
• The stroke volume index (SVI) was also found to be higher in the pentastarch group at 30 minutes and 60 minutes.
• The mean arterial pressure of horses in both groups was however lower at 90 minutes compared with 30 and 60 minutes.

Conclusions

• The study concludes that pentastarch results in a better CI than hypertonic saline for up to 150 minutes after anesthetic induction.
• However, the effect of this improved global blood flow on regional perfusion or clinical outcome has not been established and remains to be studied further.