Use of V-Gels??

Re: Use of V-Gels??

C J — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:58:35 GMT

It will work out very expensive Gemma your right, i cant believe how expensive they are! but my boss would prefer to pay this than tube her cat spays/castrates. She has been to lectures/read articles where more cats die after being intubated and so chooses not to for the routine castrate/spay. Thankfully we have not had any animals die due to an intubation problem and none when they have been masked. She will obviously tube any other patient and if a routine comes in that is of higher risk we tube these. We sometimes do a lot of routine cats on one day so we worry about the isoflo inhalation to the nurse hence the reason for looking into these.

Re: Use of V-Gels??

Gemma Burden RVN — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:27:47 GMT

I have worked in a practice for 5 and a half years where we didn't intubate our cat castrate, and have now worked in a practice where we always intubate them for over 4 years. I am yet to see any complications from intubation and would much rather have a tube in place incase anything goes wrong, but have seen cats that were not tubed die on recovery. I can't remember the specifics of these cases as they were years ago now, but suspect that as a tube was not being placed more of the injectable agent was given than would have been given to animal that would have been intubated. If the staff intubating and monitoring the animal are properly trained and competent in placing a tube then trauma should not be that much of a problem - errors like over inflation of cuffs should not be happening if staff know what they are doing. I don't thing that the length of a procedure should govern whether or not a tube is placed.

Re: Use of V-Gels??

Fuzzyduck — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 21:04:59 GMT

I went to a CPD, i cant remember who by now but anyway they were saying its better not to intubate cat castrates as the procedure is so short that for the amount of trauma an ET tube causes to the trachea its better to use a mask and o2 and propofol as needed.

I have seen 1 case of a cat who died following castration due to tracheal trauma and 1 pup too that looked like the cuff had been inflated too big causing severe damage it also died. We almost never intubate our castrates

Re: Use of V-Gels??

Gemma Burden RVN — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 20:57:48 GMT

I had a look at these at BSAVA congress and they look good, but I'm not sure that they have enough benefits over ET tubes to warrant the additional cost, esp as you would have to get a capnograph as well if you didn't have one. I can actually see more benefit for rabbits than cats as everyone should be happy with intubating a cat, but there are so many vets that still shy away from intubating a rabbit.. I have to ask though why you feel these would be benefitial to the nurses when a lot of cost could be saved by using the ET tubes that you already have?

Re: Use of V-Gels??

Fuzzyduck — Tue, 03 Jul 2012 19:44:12 GMT

Yes you have to use capnography with them otherwise you dont know if they are correctly positioned and whether the cat can breathe. They are easy to place once u get the hang of them but they are really expensive if you compare with ET tubes.