Impiego del sevofluorano in anestesiologia veterinaria = Use of sevoflurane in veterinary anaesthesiology

Abstract

Sevoflurane was first synthesized in 1968, and immediately after studies started to be carried out by various researchers, in order to investigate its useful characteristics and properties. This was followed by authorization for its use in the 1990's, especially in the pediatric field. Contemporary, studies started to be carried out by veterinary researchers to study its possible use in veterinary anaesthesia. This studies have notebly increased in the last 5-10 years. This thesis, after briefly considering the properties in common to all volatile anaesthetic agents, looks at the physical and chemical properties of sevoflurane, its effects on the Central Nervous System, on the Cardiovascular System, and on the Respiratory System, its metabolism in the liver, its clinical use, its collateral side effects, its pharmacokinetics, and its interaction with other therapeutic drugs (especially other anaesthetic agents, such as nitrous oxide and propofol), in reference to the results of important studies carried out in the last years and clinical observations in both humans and animals (especially the dog), but also compares the characteristics and properties of sevoflurane with the classical halogenated volatile anaesthetic agents presently used in veterinary anaesthesia, i.e. halothane, enflurane, and isoflurane. This thesis concludes that sevoflurane has important advantages with respect to other volatile agents, and therefore it seems probable that sevoflurane will eventually substitute other volatile anaesthetic agents presently utilized for veterinary anaesthesia, in the near future.