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

Abstract

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: n = 72, 31%; cats: n = 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.