Cardiovascular effects of butorphanol in isoflurane-anesthetized alpacas

Abstract

Butorphanol has been used clinically to provide analgesia in alpacas, but cardiovascular effects have not been reported. Using a randomized cross-over design, eight healthy, young adult female alpacas (3 ± 1 SD years) weighing 64 ± 9 SD kg were anesthetized with isoflurane by mask followed by tracheal intubation and maintenance of anesthesia with 1.75% et (isoflurane) in oxygen. Two treatments, butorphanol (0.1 mg kg–1 IV) and control (saline, IV) were assigned to the animals in a randomized manner allowing a minimum of two weeks between treatments. While anesthetized, animals were instrumented for measurement of cardiovascular variables including systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial blood pressure, pulmonary arterial pressure, pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, central venous pressure, cardiac output (CO) and pulmonary temperature (TEMP). CO was measured via thermodilution using 5 mL of iced 5% dextrose and recording the average of three replicate measurements. Cardiac index, systemic vascular resistance (SVR) and pulmonary vascular resistance were also calculated. Arterial and mixed venous blood samples were collected for blood gas analysis [pH, pO2, pCO2, (HCO3−), BE, Hbsat]. Variables were collected at baseline (time 0) and at 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, and 60 minutes following injection. Variables were analyzed by anovafor repeated measures with post-hoc differences between means identified using the Bonferroni comparison (p < 0.05). SVR decreased five minutes after administration of butorphanol (Huynh Feldt corrected p = 0.045) and remained decreased for 60 minutes. TEMP decreased with time in both groups (Huynh Feldt corrected p = 0.000027), but groups were not different between each other. Other cardiovascular and blood gas variables were not different between groups. We conclude that butorphanol (0.1 mg kg–1 IV) had minimal effects on the cardiovascular system of these alpacas, causing a mild decrease in SVR.