Abstract
Objective—To describe the pool-raft recovery system protocol and to evaluate the clinical outcome inhorses that underwent recovery from general anes-thesia using this system.
Design—Retrospective study.
Animals—393 horses that underwent recovery fromgeneral anesthesia in the pool-raft system.
Procedure—Anesthetic records were examined fromhorses recovered from anesthesia in the pool-raft sys-tem between January 1984 and December 2000.Complete medical records of horses were examinedwhen available. Information regarding the anestheticand recovery period was recorded. Horses first recov-ered from general anesthesia in the pool-raft and,once awake, were transported to a recovery stall andlowered to the floor in a standing position.
Results—351 horses underwent 1 pool-raft recovery,and 42 horses underwent multiple pool-raft recover-ies. Most horses were recovered from general anes-thesia within the pool-raft system to safeguard repairof a major orthopedic injury. During 471 pool-raftrecoveries, 34 (7%) horses had complications withinthe recovery pool and 62 (13%) had complicationswithin the recovery stall. Deaths resulted from complete failure of internal fixation, pulmonary dysfunc-tion, or a combination of pulmonary dysfunction andfixation failure in 2% (10/471) of horses that under-went pool-raft recoveries.
Conclusions and Clinical Relevance—The pool-raftsystem is a good option for recovery from generalanesthesia. Although not a fail-safe system, itappears to decrease the complications of recoveringhorses in a high-risk category. Potential disadvan-tages of this system are added expense and man-power necessary in building, maintenance, andusage, as well as size limitations of the raft itself. (J Am Vet Med Assoc 2002;221:1014–1018)
