Medicine

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A Discussion On Fluid Therapy Management For Veterinary Patients

Few topics are as controversial as the “ideal” fluid rate during surgery. To clarify the situation, we talked to Bill Muir III, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl. ACVA, Dipl. ACVECC, and Chief Medical Officer of the Animal Medical Center in New York City. Why is intraop fluid therapy so debated? Perioperative and more specifically intraoperative fluid therapy continue to be enigmatic and controversial subjects due to varying opinions regarding the type and amount of fluid to administer, inadequate monitoring techniques and most importantly a lack of evidence defining “best practice.” Conventional intraoperative fluid administration for most is “recipe based” (ml/kg/hr) and administered at rates that cannot be justified either physiologically or medically. Contemporary rates of intraoperative fluid administration (10-15 ml/kg/hr) are defended based on insensible water losses, the conjectured severity of surgically induced tissue trauma and anesthesia-induced increases in intravascular volume (vasodilatation). Regardless, little, if any, evidence has been generated to support these recommendations. What do anesthesiologists do in humans? Recent evidence generated by studies conducted in humans and experimental animals suggest that a more “restrictive,” rather than “liberal,” approach for fluid administration should be practiced. This practice likely decreases morbidities associated with excessive fluid administration, such as pulmonary gas …