Use of physiologic and arterial blood gas variables to predict short-term survival in horses with large colon volvulus.

The research is aimed at determining if specific variables taken during preoperative physical examination and blood tests, intraoperative physiological parameters, and treatments can predict the short-term survival in horses undergoing surgery for correction of significant colon twist.

Objective and Methodology

• The study focuses on whether certain parameters, when measured pre-operation and during the surgery, can predict successful anesthesia recovery and short-term survival till hospital discharge for horses with severe Large Colon Volvulus (LCV), a condition involving a substantial twist in the large colon.
• The study is retrospective, with cases taken from horses (156 in number) who underwent surgery for LCV correction of 360o or greater.
• The review period ranged from January 2000 to December 2009, with data collection including factors like breed, age, sex (signalment), preoperative physical examination variables, intraoperative physical and hematologic variables, treatments administered during surgery, and the horse’s arterial blood gas values.
• The authors used exact logistic regression to determine which factors were risk indicators for survival both to anesthesia recovery and to hospital discharge.

Findings

• Factors found to negatively impact survival to anesthetic recovery or hospital discharge include high preoperative heart rate, high packed cell volume (indicating dehydration), and low total serum protein levels during the operation.
• Intraoperative situations like tachycardia (rapid heart rate), hypercapnia (excessive carbon dioxide in the bloodstream), and hypotension (low blood pressure) were also linked with not surviving to hospital discharge or recovering from anesthesia.
• Interestingly, the study found no increased death risk in horses where a colon resection and anastomosis (removal and joining) were performed compared with those wherein manual correction was done.

Conclusion and Implications

• The study concluded that several quickly measurable hematologic and cardiorespiratory variables, before and during the operation, align well with post-anesthetic survival chances in horses subjected to surgical correction of LCV.
• The availability of such factors may be useful for predicting survival rates in horses admitted for LCV correction. The findings provide veterinarians with the guidance that certain preoperative and intraoperative measurements can play a vital role in managing the health and survival chances of horses under surgery for LCV correction.