Objective: To investigate the efficacy of maxillary and infraorbital nerve blocks for prevention of cardiovascular and qualitative responses to rhinoscopy, as well as response to skin clamping after assigned nerve block placement.
Study design: Randomized, blinded, placebo-controlled cross-over experimental study.
Animals: Eight random-source mixed breed dogs > 1 year old and weighing between 13 and 22 kg.
Methods: Within three anesthetic episodes, separated by at least 3 days, dogs were assigned to receive either 1 mL lidocaine 2% maxillary nerve block (ML); 0.5 mL lidocaine 2% infraorbital nerve block (IOL); or equal amounts of saline for maxillary or infraorbital nerve block combined as control treatment (S). Monitoring included temperature, respiratory rate, end-tidal CO2 , ECG, heart rate (HR), systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure (SAP, DAP, MAP). Posterior (pR) and anterior rhinoscopies (aR) were performed and scored. Differences from baseline for outcome parameters HR, SAP, DAP, MAP were analyzed using repeated-measures anova, and results reported as mean ± SD. Binary scores for rhinoscopy were analyzed using logistic regression, and odds ratio was reported.
Results: Changes from baseline for HR and SAP were significant for all treatments, besides ML for pR. Difference in changes from baseline among treatments was statistically significant for HR during pR with ML < S, and for SAP, DAP and MAP in right and left aR with ML < S and IOL > ML, except for DAP in left aR with only IOL > ML. Analysis of the binary score showed that the probability of a response for S and IOL treatments was nearly triple that of the ML treatment. None of the dogs, regardless of the treatments applied, responded to skin clamping.
Conclusion and clinical relevance: Cardiovascular parameters do not seem to reflect the occurrence of adverse reactions during rhinoscopy. The maxillary nerve block is superior to the infraorbital nerve block, as applied in this study, in preventing adverse reactions during posterior rhinoscopy.
© 2013 The Authors. Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia © 2013 Association of Veterinary Anaesthetists and the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia.