The Veterinary clinics of North America. Small animal practice
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Vet. Clin. North Am. Small Anim. Pract. · May 1999
ReviewDesflurane and sevoflurane. New volatile anesthetic agents.
Desflurane and sevoflurane, recently licensed for use in humans, have kinetics that result in rapid induction and easy maintenance of a stable level of anesthesia. Recovery is also rapid. ⋯ Metabolites of sevoflurane and breakdown products from its reaction with carbon dioxide absorbents theoretically could result in hepatic and renal damage, but such toxicity has not occurred despite extensive medical use. Clinical trials in animals are now in progress.
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The alpha 2 agonists can produce reliable dose-dependent sedation and analgesia in most species. Nevertheless, they can also produce significant physiological adverse side effects depending on dose, rate, route of administration, and the concurrent use of other CNS depressants. For this reason, it may be best to use a low dose of an alpha 2 agonist as a preanesthetic agent. ⋯ The combining of low doses of alpha 2, opioid, and benzodiazepine agonists results in a synergistic CNS depressant response while minimizing the undesirable side effects of these three classes of drugs. Each group of drugs has specific antagonists available for their reversal, thus allowing veterinarians to reverse one or more of the agonists depending on the desired response. This may represent a significant advantage to the use of low-dose alpha 2 agonists in combination with opioids and benzodiazepines.