Anaesthesia

Many patients may require sedation, general anaesthesia or pain relief for their diagnostic and/or surgical treatments. The anaesthesia team is always working together with the clinicians to make a plan for every single animal according to their needs.

Every patient is unique in terms of medical status, temperament, undergoing procedure and response to being in a strange environment. The anaesthetist has the expertise to take all that into consideration and make a plan that is suitable for each patient individually, it includes pre-, peri- and post-operative management and ensures that the animal has a safe anaesthetic and an uneventful recovery.

The anaesthetist has at its disposal all necessary equipment to provide safe and balanced anaesthesia (including possibility for mechanical ventilation), and full monitoring according to the needs of every patient (continuous electrocardiography, capnography, pulse oximetry, temperature, measurement of indirect blood pressure with oscillometry and Doppler, direct arterial blood pressure and central venous pressure pressure, urine output, arterial blood gases).

In addition, the anaesthetist makes sure that all patients receive the best analgesia for the procedure
with systemic administration of analgesics but also with the application of epidural analgesia, local blocks and continuous post-operative pain assessment and adjustment of pain relief according to the needs of each patient. Critical patients are under the care of our specialist anaesthetists, Dr Catherine Walsh and Evdokia Psatha, who have the expertise to deal with these patients and also the means to provide safe anaesthesia but also benefit from a dedicated ICU team (consisting of interns and experienced nurses) that are continuously monitoring such patients.

Animals that are having MRI and CT may also present with higher anaesthetic risk, as usually patients with brain disease are the ones that require an MRI. Such animals may suffer from increased intracranial pressure and it is important that an anaesthetist is taking all necessary precautions in order to provide a safe anaesthetic and a good recovery.

Anaesthesia - the piece of mind of the very best care and highest standards