Association between anesthesia duration and outcome in dogs with surgically treated acute severe spinal cord injury caused by thoracolumbar intervertebral disk herniation

This study looked at the relationship between how long dogs were under anesthesia during spinal surgery and how well they recovered. The study focused on dogs with severe spinal cord injuries from a slipped disc in their back. The researchers reviewed medical records from multiple veterinary hospitals. They checked if longer anesthesia times were linked to poorer outcomes, like not being able to walk again. The findings suggest that longer time under anesthesia might be connected to worse recovery in these dogs. However, the study couldn't definitively say that anesthesia time directly causes the poorer outcomes.

• 1
  Dogs that regained the ability to walk after surgery had significantly shorter anesthesia times compared to those that did not recover.
• 2
  For each additional hour of anesthesia, the odds of a dog regaining the ability to walk decreased by approximately 27%.
• 3
  Body weight and the number of spinal spaces operated on were also factors influencing anesthesia time, and were controlled for in the analysis.