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Benefits of Intravenous Fluids During Anaesthesia

If you have ever had surgery, you probably remember having an intravenous catheter placed in your hand or arm for fluid and drug delivery. Because studies have shown that appropriate fluid therapy during surgery helps increase patient safety, human hospitals routinely provide it. Unfortunately, because it adds to the cost of surgery, not all veterinary clinics use perioperative fluids in all patients.

Many low-cost, high-volume spay clinics do not routinely use fluids in their patients. They can do this because they operate only on young, healthy animals. Even healthy dogs and cats, however, benefit from perioperative fluids, and denying these animals this treatment puts them at increased risk of surgical complications. To understand why it is risky to perform surgery without fluid therapy, you need to understand the major reasons veterinarians use fluids in their surgical patients.

Prevention of Dehydration

During surgery and anaesthesia, patients lose fluids for a number of reasons including the following:

• Evaporation
• Diffusion
• Blood loss
• Sweating

These losses are more significant to an anaesthetized patient than to an awake animal because a dog or cat under anaesthesia cannot replace lost fluids through eating or drinking. This can result in profound dehydration and electrolyte imbalances if not addressed. Because anaesthetized patients are more vulnerable to dehydration than awake patients, the gold standard of veterinary surgical care is to provide perioperative fluids to all anaesthetized patients, including healthy animals, undergoing spay or neuter surgery.
 
Maintenance of Blood Pressure and Tissue Perfusion

Adequate blood pressure is necessary to maintain organ function and prevent organ damage. Because many anaesthetic drugs lower blood pressure, a method to ensure appropriate blood flow is necessary. Fluids help maintain blood pressure and keep organs functioning appropriately during surgery and recovery.

By ensuring adequate blood flow to the tissues of the body, intravenous fluids also help deliver adequate oxygen and nutrients to all parts of the body and aid in the removal of waste products. Additionally, proper blood flow helps ensure appropriate delivery and metabolism of anaesthetic drugs. This increases patient safety because it minimizes the amount of these drugs needed to maintain anaesthesia and speeds recovery.
 
Prevention of Complications

By maintaining hydration and perfusion, perioperative fluids help to reduce the risk of organ damage during anaesthesia. In addition, having an intravenous catheter with a fluid line allows the veterinarian or technician monitoring the anaesthetized patient to immediately provide drugs, blood products or additional fluids to the patient in the event of an emergency or surgical complication. Being able to provide these things quickly can save the dog or cat’s life.

While surgical complications during routine spays and neuters are extremely rare, any surgery has the potential for complications. In humans, doctors use fluids even for routine procedures because doing so is safer for the patient. High-quality veterinary hospitals follow human doctors in using fluid therapy in all anaesthetized patients.
Improved Recovery

Surgical patients receiving fluid therapy have shorter recovery times and better outcomes than those not receiving fluids. Because providing fluids prevents organ damage, maintains hydration and allows for efficient delivery of oxygen and nutrients as well as excretion of waste products, it minimizes the damage caused by surgery. This results in decreased pain and a quicker return to normal activity.

To ensure your pet receives the very best care, make sure you bring them in for regular checkups to catch any emerging health problems before they take hold.

Contact us to schedule your appointment today!