Information About Pet General Anesthesia and IV Sedation

General anesthesia is administered in several different ways. Your pet will have an intravenous catheter placed to administer medications and IV fluids while he or she is under anesthesia. Patients are intubated with an endotracheal tube to allow for a controlled airway, administer oxygen, administer inhaled general anesthetic drugs, and support ventilation. Postoperatively, patients are treated with intravenous pain medications as indicated based on the procedure performed.

Although very safe, general anesthesia carries inherent risks that your surgeon will have explained during your preoperative consultation. These risks may include delayed recovery, adverse drug reactions, hypothermia, regurgitation, airway compromise, aspiration pneumonia, cardiac complications or death. If you have any questions regarding general anesthesia, please contact your surgeon prior to your pet’s procedure.

Regional anesthesia (an injection of local anesthetic that numbs a region of the body) is almost always employed for oral surgical procedures. The region of the body (maxilla or mandible) is typically anesthetized before the procedure begins (after the patient is asleep under general anesthesia) to ensure a pain-free procedure and again after the procedure is completed with a long-acting local anesthetic to provide postoperative pain control. Regional anesthetic techniques (infraorbital nerve blocks and/or inferior alveolar nerve blocks) are very safe, however risks include a post-injection hematoma, inadvertent intravascular injection, post-injection neuropathy, among others. These complications are very rare, and most patients tolerate regional anesthesia well.