Clinton Parkway

Anesthesia Monitoring

At Clinton Parkway Animal Hospital, safe anesthesia with continuous patient monitoring by certified technicians is a priority. We have the latest in anesthetic monitoring technology including end tidal CO2, oxygen saturation, blood pressure monitors and EKG’s.

CPAH Anesthesia Goal
(in order of importance)

1. Certified technician with your pet under anesthesia 100% of the time—priceless!
2. Warm, comfortable and pain free
3. Intravenous fluids for longer procedures and for all older patients. IV fluids prevent hypotension and improve circulation.
4. End tidal CO2
5. Blood pressure
6. Pulse oximetry
7. ECG

CPAH Guidelines for Pain Management

We would like to introduce you to some of the new technologies at CPAH that have made anesthesia safe for your pet — it is part of our commitment to provide the best health care possible. These monitoring devices help us recognize and avoid anesthetic problems. Each monitoring system is programmed to detect any small change from normal levels, allowing us to respond before problems develop.

• End-Tidal CO2 — an exciting new technology that measures CO2 in the exhaled breath non-invasively. The machine takes a sampling of your pets exhaled air and analyzes it for carbon dioxide. If your pet’s breathing is too slow or too shallow the carbon dioxide will start rising. This is a much better way of analyzing respiration than just observing your pet breathing. The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA), made it mandatory that every intubated human patient under general anesthesia must be monitored for ETCO2 levels.
• Blood pressures —are routinely done in humans to monitor depth of anesthesia. This is an essential monitoring technique in pets as well. Blood pressure can be monitored by a simple cuff that is placed either on a leg or a tail. Our certified technicians measure systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures every few minutes.
• Pulse Oximeter — a small, gentle clip is attached to your pet’s footpad. The clip uses light waves to measure how much oxygen the blood cells are carrying. This is a very sensitive instrument and can alert us to any combination of poor respiration or poor circulation.
• Electrocardiogram (EKG) — monitor clips are attached to your pet and give a continuous EKG readout just as any human operating room.
• Body Core Temperature —is especially important in smaller pets since they can lose significant body heat under anesthesia. We utilize the most current equipment available to maintain adequate body core temperature in all of our patients.