Carlson College of Veterinary Medicine

OBJECTIVE To compare effects of tiletamine-zolazepam, alfaxalone, ketamine-diazepam, and propofol for anesthetic induction on cardiorespiratory and acid-base variables before and during isoflurane-maintained anesthesia in healthy dogs. ANIMALS 6 dogs. PROCEDURES Dogs were anesthetized with sevoflurane and instrumented. After dogs recovered from anesthesia, baseline values for cardiorespiratory variables and cardiac output were determined, and arterial and mixed-venous blood samples were obtained. Tiletamine-zolazepam (5 mg/kg), alfaxalone (4 mg/kg), propofol (6 mg/kg), or ketamine-diazepam (7 and 0.3 mg/kg) was administered IV in 25% increments to enable intubation. After induction (M) and at 10, 20, 40, and 60 minutes of a light anesthetic plane maintained with isoflurane, measurements and sample collections were repeated. Cardiorespiratory and acid-base variables were compared with a repeated-measures ANOVA and post hoc t test and between time points with a pairwise Tukey test. RESULTS Mean ± SD intubation doses were 3.8 ± 0.8 mg/kg for tiletamine-zolazepam, 2.8 ± 0.3 mg/kg for alfaxalone, 6.1 ± 0.9 mg/kg and 0.26 ± 0.04 mg/kg for ketamine-diazepam, and 5.4 ± 1.1 mg/kg for propofol. Anesthetic depth was similar among regimens. At M, heart rate increased by 94.9%, 74.7%, and 54.3% for tiletamine-zolazepam, ketamine-diazepam, and alfaxalone, respectively. Tiletamine-zolazepam caused higher oxygen delivery than propofol. Postinduction apnea occurred in 3 dogs when receiving alfaxalone. Acid-base variables remained within reference limits. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE In healthy dogs in which a light plane of anesthesia was maintained with isoflurane, cardiovascular and metabolic effects after induction with tiletamine-zolazepam were comparable to those after induction with alfaxalone and ketamine-diazepam.