A retrospective study of perianesthetic and sedation deaths in dogs and cats submitted to Canadian veterinary diagnostic laboratories.

BACKGROUND

Perianesthetic death or sedation death in companion animals is an infrequent but devastating complication. Few studies have investigated the pathology associated with these deaths.

OBJECTIVE

To determine clinical features and postmortem findings for submissions to multiple Canadian diagnostic laboratories from perianesthetic/sedation deaths in dogs and cats.

ANIMALS AND PROCEDURE

Laboratory Information Management Systems were retrospectively reviewed for cases of perianesthetic/sedation death in dogs and cats. Inclusion criteria were: i) whole-body submissions and ii) death within 7 d after the procedure.

RESULTS

Pathology reports determined the cause of death in 43% of dogs (73/168) and 34% of cats (50/147). Spay/neuter surgeries were the most common procedure for which animals were submitted (dogs: = 72, 31%; cats: = 111, 58%). The American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status in these animals was low (ASA status I or II) in 94% of dogs (68/72) and 93% of cats (103/111). Clinical history was considered incomplete in 60.3% of cases (242/401).

CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE

These results had similar trends to those in previous studies that identified an important proportion of submissions for perianesthetic/sedation deaths lacked significant lesions to explain the cause of death. This study also identified spay/neuter procedures were involved in the largest proportion of submissions, despite their low pre-anesthetic/sedation risk.