Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Nick Shackleton — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 10:03:59 GMT

http://www.vetnurse.co.uk/wikis/veterinary-nurse/anaesthesia-quick-reference-chart.aspx

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Andrew Thompson — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 18:53:04 GMT

Hi there

Im a SVN so apologise if I seem vague or "un-clued" should I put it =]

currently in our practice we don't routinely use BP monitoring during anaesthesia. I do think it is a good Idea to start however our BP monitor gives us a diastolic and systolic reading. what are the averages that I should expect for cats and dogs. Also I am assuming the type of analgesic used will have a affect on the BP.

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

emvn80 — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 23:06:08 GMT

Hi,

Blood pressure is written as 3 numbers systolic/diastolic then the mean. All 3 will be displayed with oscillometric blood pressure machines in multiparameter monitors, however with Doppler blood pressure machines they give you the systolic only.

Too much to go into on here, but the main point to remember is that to maintain perfusion to tissues and major organs (most importnat are the kidneys and brain) the mean blood pressure should be 60 mmHg or above. (This is true for cats and dogs) It is most useful to monitor trends over a period of time in conjunction with other parameters (ie heart rate) to get an idea of what is happening, but the best thing you can do if the blood pressure is low is to reduce your isoflurane (as isoflurane causes dose dependent vasodilation which leads to hypotension) and then (under veterinary direction) is to administer fluids.

I have done a webinar for the CPD company below. I think it only costs about £20 for an hour long lecture you can watch an listen online. It is on cardiovascular monitoring but there is a section on blood pressure-how to measure, different types, and what to do if the blood pressure falls etc, you may find it useful.

Hypertension (high blood pressure) is rare under anaesthesia but is normally due to inadequate anaesthetic depth, & resolves when the depth of anaesthesia is increased or additional analgesia is given. (Assumming the animal is not hypertensive prior to anaesthesia!)

If you have a Doppler blood pressure monitor then the values you will be getting refer to the systolic blood pressure and will therefore need to be maintained higher than the mean.... Difficult to put exact values on but I normally like to have a Doppler blood pressure reading of >80mmHg under anaesthesia in cats and dogs and hopefully even higher. (There has been a couple of studies in cats which have shown that the doppler blood pressure readings is actually somewhere between the systolic and the mean, one study demonstrated it consistently read 14mmHg lower than the true systolic (Slightly reassuring when you are battling with a hypotensive cat!)

http://ecpd-vetnurse.com/

I hope this helps?

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Kimbo — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 08:47:53 GMT

Go to the members area, then CE centre, find the course to click on, and from there you can download the notes.

It doesn't seem to that you can watch the actual webinar though. Perhaps enquire if you're keen?..

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Honeybadger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 19:42:51 GMT

I am probably being blind but how do you watch the webinar/download notes? I have signed up to the mailing list but still cant work it out....

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Skitch — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 22:13:41 GMT

Hey Kimbo!

Thank you very much for your reply. I have successfully registered on the website and downloaded the webinar notes which are of great help.

Thanks again.

Skitch

Re: Blood pressure monitoring during anaesthesia

Kimbo — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 05:27:35 GMT

Hi Stitch, head to vetnurse.com.au ( if possible outside of Australia) and look for the free BP webinar in the CE Centre.

Hope this helps!