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This week on the blog, one of our senior cat nurses Sam talks about her Advanced Anaesthesia course she attended recently: 

Last week I had the opportunity to attend an Advanced Anaesthesia course at Applied Vocational Training in Bentley. Our speaker for the day was Dr Ellie Drynan, an anaesthetist from Murdoch University. We discussed several topics throughout the day.

Preparation of anaesthesia

This section covered everything before we induce anaesthesia. How we prepare our patients is important in ensuring they have a smooth anaesthetic and recovery. Preparation techniques involve examining our patients preoperatively as well as administering premedications and IV infusions. These are used to reduce the amount of anaesthetic agents we need to use, manage pain effectively and minimise stress for our patients. This emphasised the importance to me of routine blood testing which we recommend to ensure we fully establish the risk of every cat prior to anaesthesia.

Monitoring the cardiovascular system

This section involved assessing aspects of the cardiovascular system and using them to monitor our patients anaesthetic. The importance of various blood pressure monitoring techniques were looked at, as well as interpreting electrocardiograms (where we monitor the electrical activity of the heart). With this knowledge it is possible to detect potential complications before they become an issue.

Monitoring the respiratory system

This portion of the day included a look at capnography. We use this to assess the concentration of carbon dioxide in our patients exhaled air. A capnograph is a non-invasive, continuous and rapid measurement of our patients respiratory effort. It allows us to ensure our patients are breathing effectively during anaesthesia. We are lucky at Perth Cat Hospital to have multi-monitors in each of the theaters so every cat undergoing anesthesia will have capnography performed.

Case studies of complicated anaesthetics

The afternoon was dedicated to looking in to real life case studies submitted by the attendees. The cases included elderly patients, patients with underlying medical conditions and emergency surgeries. Dr Drynan discussed management techniques of these cases in practice using the fundamentals covered in the previous topics.

By attending this course I have been able to apply my more advanced knowledge to our patients at the Perth Cat Hospital and improve their overall experience. I am thankful that our hospital has invested heavily in the best Surgivet veterinary monitoring equipment which means that all parameters can be carefully monitored throughout the anesthesic making it safer and more comfortable for my patients.

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