Sparing effect of tramadol, lidocaine, dexmedetomidine and their combination on the minimum alveolar concentration of sevoflurane in dogs.

Background: Problems associated with using inhalational anaesthesia are numerous in veterinary anaesthesia practice. Decreasing the amount of used inhalational anaesthetic agents and minimising of cardiorespiratory disorders are the standard goals of anaesthetists.

Objective: This experimental study was carried out to investigate the sparing effect of intravenous tramadol, lidocaine, dexmedetomidine and their combinations on the minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of sevoflurane in healthy Beagle dogs.

Methods: This study was conducted on six beagle dogs. Sevoflurane MAC was determined by the tail clamp method on five separate occasions. The dogs received no treatment (control; CONT), tramadol (TRM: 1.5 mg kg intravenously followed by 1.3 mg kg h), lidocaine (LID: 2 mg kg intravenously followed by 3 mg kg h), dexmedetomidine (DEX: 2 μg kg intravenously followed by 2 μg kg h), and their combination (COMB), respectively. Cardiorespiratory variables were recorded every five minutes and immediately before the application of a noxious stimulus.

Results: The COMB treatment had the greatest sevoflurane MAC-sparing effect (67.4 ± 13.9%) compared with the other treatments (5.1 ± 25.3, 12.7 ± 14.3, and 40.3 ± 15.1% for TRM, LID, and DEX treatment, respectively). The cardiopulmonary variables remained within the clinically acceptable range following COMB treatment, although the mean arterial pressure was higher and accompanied by bradycardia.

Conclusions: Tramadol-lidocaine-dexmedetomidine co-infusion produced a remarkable sevoflurane MAC-sparing effect in clinically healthy beagle dogs and could result in the alleviation of cardiorespiratory depression caused by sevoflurane. Cardiorespiratory variables should be monitored carefully to avoid undesirable side effects induced by dexmedetomidine.