OBJECTIVES

To evaluate the clinical efficacy of carprofen like perioperative analgesic in dogs when is used alone or combined with opioids

MATERIALS

Sixty dogs which need general anaesthesia for various diagnostic or therapeutic reasons were included in this study. Thirty of them were anesthetized with morphine (0,2 mg/kg IM),propofol(3 mg/kg IV) and isoflurane. The others were anesthetized with the same protocol but carprofen (4 mg/kg IV) was administered 30 minutes before induction. Some cardiovascular and respiratory variables were studied every 5 minutes during the procedure. Recovery times and perioperative pain control were also evaluated.

RESULTS

Carprofen reduced anaesthetic requirements. Intraoperative pain control was best achieved when it was used combined with morphine. Cardiovascular stability was best in the carprofen-morphine group. But the respiratory depression was higher. All cardiorespiratory variables were within normal values. Postoperative analgesia was better with carprofen-morphine.

CONCLUSION

Carprofen is a very good analgesic when it's used intraoperatively, getting less the anesthetic requests. The studied anaesthetic protocol provided a good cardiovascular and respiratory stability. Recovery is excellent.