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    5324 Planes of Anaesthesia

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    Julius Riazonda
    The document discusses the stages and planes of anesthesia, including the levels from voluntary excitement to excessive depth, and monitoring reflexes and physiology to assess depth of anesthesia and ensure patient safety during surgery.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    5324 Planes of Anaesthesia

    Uploaded by

    Julius Riazonda
    300 views3 pages
    The document discusses the stages and planes of anesthesia, including the levels from voluntary excitement to excessive depth, and monitoring reflexes and physiology to assess depth of anesthesia and ensure patient safety during surgery.

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    Planes of anesthesia

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    The document discusses the stages and planes of anesthesia, including the levels from voluntary excitement to excessive depth, and monitoring reflexes and physiology to assess depth of anesthesia and ensure patient safety during surgery.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    300 views3 pages

    5324 Planes of Anaesthesia

    Uploaded by

    Julius Riazonda
    The document discusses the stages and planes of anesthesia, including the levels from voluntary excitement to excessive depth, and monitoring reflexes and physiology to assess depth of anesthesia and ensure patient safety during surgery.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    The main reasons for administering anesthesia are to facilitate handling, abolish pain perception, and provide optimal surgical conditions. Different levels or planes of anesthesia are described traditionally from light to deep.

    The different stages of anesthesia described are: voluntary excitement, involuntary excitement, and three planes (light, medium, deep) of surgical anesthesia.

    Reflexes assessed include palpebral, pupillary light, nystagmus, pedal/withdrawal, yawning, ear flick, jaw tone, pharyngeal, laryngeal, and visceral reflexes.

    Learning topic: Assist during surgery

    Stages and planes of anaesthesia

    The main reasons for administering an anaesthetic agent to animals are to:
    • facilitate the humane handling of a fearful animal
    • abolish the awareness of pain
    • provide optimal conditions for examination and treatment, including
    muscle relaxation for the performance of surgery.

    Levels of anaesthesia
    Traditionally, depth of anaesthesia has been described as progressing
    through a number of levels.

    Although this is not exactly consistent with the present understanding of


    neurology, it remains a useful clinical tool.

    Four levels of anaesthesia were originally described based on ether


    anaesthesia.

    The use of pre-anaesthetic agents and other drugs to maintain anaesthesia


    may modify the clinical signs seen at these levels. For example, when using
    quicker acting induction agents, such as thiopentone and halothane, the
    earlier stages may be less well defined.

    The levels of anaesthesia are generally defined as:


    • Stage 1: Voluntary excitement
    This begins with the induction of anaesthesia. Animals are conscious
    and may display ‘fear, fight, flight’ reactions which may be modified by
    preanesthetic drugs.
    • Stage 2: Involuntary excitement
    This begins with the onset of unconsciousness and lasts until rhythmic
    breathing is established.
    • Stage 3: Surgical anaesthesia
    - Plane 1, light: Intubation is possible, except in cats, which
    require local anaesthetic to depress laryngeal reflexes. Minor
    examinations and surgical procedures are possible.
    - Plane 2, medium: Suitable for most surgical procedures.

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    © NSW DET 2007
    - Plane 3, deep: This depth is unnecessary for most surgical
    procedures, except where profound muscle relaxation is
    required to enhance surgical exposure. Muscle relaxation
    could be achieved with other drugs and anaesthetic
    techniques to prevent taking an animal this deep.
    • Stage 4: Excessively deep
    You’ll need to react quickly if the animal reaches Stage 4 because it can
    lead to death due to severe cardiovascular and ventilatory depression.

    Reflexes
    To assist in assessing depth of anaesthesia, the anaesthetist will assess a
    number of different reflexes:
    • palpebral reflex––blinking is stimulated by touching the medial canthus
    of the eye
    • pupillary light reflex––the pupils constrict in response to light. These
    eye reflexes disappear in Stage 3, Plane 2
    • nystagmus (flicking of the eyes)––may be seen in light anaesthesia in
    horses
    • pedal reflex or withdrawal reflex––pinching between the toes will cause
    withdrawal of the leg
    • yawning reflex––opening of the mouth during light anaesthesia may
    elicit a yawn in carnivores
    • ear flick––mild stimulation of the external auditory meatus of the dog or
    cat will cause the ear to flick. This is present in light anaesthesia
    • jaw tone––the amount of resistance encountered when opening the
    mouth gives an indication of muscle tone
    • pharyngeal reflex––enables swallowing
    • laryngeal reflex––enables coughing and closure of the larynx
    • visceral reflex––traction of an organ will elicit an increase in respiratory
    effort even when the patient is at a sufficient depth of anaesthesia for
    surgery.

    Monitoring during anaesthesia


    When a patient is unconscious, it is important to keep a careful check on its
    physiology. This means regularly recording details, such as:
    • heart rate and rhythm
    • respiratory rate and depth
    • mucous membrane colour and capillary refill time.

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    © NSW DET 2007
    Learning topic: Assist during surgery
    We may also have monitors to help us record blood pressure, oxygen
    saturation, carbon dioxide levels and heart electrical signals.

    You need to monitor the level of anaesthesia to ensure that the animal does
    not go either too deep or start to wake up.

    This information is recorded on an anaesthesia chart.

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    © NSW DET 2007

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