Hemodynamic Assessment via Echocardiography During Propofol Anesthetic Induction in Healthy Dogs.

Propofol is an intravenous anesthetic administered as a bolus or continuous infusion during anesthetic induction and maintenance. Its pharmacokinetic characteristics include hepatic and extrahepatic metabolism with a rapid onset of action and short duration, which provides a smooth anesthetic induction without excitatory effects. To evaluate whether the isolated use of propofol in anesthetic induction in dogs changes the hemodynamic variables assessed via echocardiography. Prospective clinical study. Twelve healthy dogs. The dogs were induced with propofol (dose/effect) at 3 mg/kg/minute, and echocardiographic evaluations were performed immediately before anesthetic induction (MB) and immediately after its interruption (MI), at the end of the supply of the anesthetic agent. A significant reduction was observed between the values of the following hemodynamic variables: Ejection Fraction (EF%), which varied from 70% to 65% (=0.011) between moments, and the Doppler Ejection Index (DEI), which ranged from 27.1 mL/beat/m to 22.4 mL/beat/m (=0.044). The heart rate (HR) and the other studied hemodynamic variables showed no significant differences between the evaluated moments. Propofol was a safe anesthetic-inducing agent, maintaining stable hemodynamic indices during anesthetic induction at the used rate.