Vitality evaluation methods for newborn puppies after cesarean section performed under general inhalation anestesia

ABSTRACT: This study aimed to demonstrate and to correlate possible methods for neonatal assessment in dogs born by elective cesarean surgery using inhalation anesthesia, enhancing its advantages and disadvantages as well as proposing lactate measurement as an adjunctive method of evaluation. After elective cesarean surgery of four bitches subjected to morphine premedication followed by propofol induction and sevoflurane anesthesia, 30 neonates were evaluated through blood sampling from the umbilical cord for lactate measurement and blood gas analyses, as well as neurological and cardiorespiratory assessment at birth and at 10 minutes of age. The neonates presented respiratory acidosis and acidemia at birth related to blood lactate values (4.98±1.39mmol/L). Neurological and cardiorespiratory depressions were present at birth with recovery at 10 minutes and no complications were observed during the first 30 days of life. The methods for neonatal assessment used in this study are safe when appropriately interpreted and the effects of general anesthesia on neonates were transient. Blood lactate obtained from the umbilical cord can be an option for the evaluation of these patients.