[Pediatric and geriatric small animal patients as risk groups in anesthesia management].

In the first 12 weeks of postnatal life puppies and kittens are defined by the term pediatric, because of their immature organ systems. In anaesthesiology they are considered as high risk patients. Dogs and cats can be defined by the term geriatric when they have completed 80% of their expected life spans. These patients show age-related decline in organ functions or in their mechanisms of compensation. Physiological and pathophysiological characteristics of pediatric and geriatric patients are discussed and principles of the perioperative anaesthetic management and of pediatric and geriatric anaesthetic techniques are given.