A Retrospective Study of the Incidence and Management of Complications Associated With Regional Nerve Blocks in Equine Dental Patients.

Regional anesthesia of the equine head is commonly performed to allow oral extraction of diseased teeth in the standing horse. The use of 4 blocks (infraorbital nerve, maxillary nerve, mental nerve, and mandibular nerve) is well documented for desensitization of dental quadrants for oral surgery for exodontia, but descriptions of associated complications are limited. A total of 270 regional nerve blocks were performed on 162 equine patients in a second opinion referral hospital setting.