Critical Care Surgical Techniques

Abstract

A veterinarian dealing with critical and trauma patients must be proficient with techniques for tracheostomy, thoracostomy tube placement for chest drainage, diagnostic peritoneal lavage, and autotransfusion. The utilization of these techniques may be life-saving in the critical patient. A tracheostomy is indicated in any patient with upper airway obstruction that cannot be managed with supplemental oxygen and/or orotracheal intubation. A tracheostomy tube with an inner cannula is preferred. Tracheostomy tubes should be cleaned at 3- to 4-h intervals, and methods should be employed to decrease thick tracheal secretions and to remove them from the trachea. A patient with a tracheostomy tube should be monitored continuously. A thoracostomy tube is indicated in any patient with large and/or continuous accumulation of air, blood, fluid, or chyle in the pleural space. The thoracostomy tube should be at least the same size as the patient's main stem bronchus. The thoracostomy tube is placed aseptically at the seventh intercostal space at the junction of the upper one third and lower two thirds of the lateral chest wall. Fluid or air may be removed from the chest intermittently with a three-way stopcock attached to the thoracostomy tube and a 60-ml syringe. If continuous drainage is needed, a continuous underwater seal and suction system should be used. Diagnostic abdominal paracentesis and peritoneal lavage are useful techniques in the determination of abdominal trauma, hollow viscus rupture, peritonitis, hepatic trauma, and urinary system trauma. When a multiholed catheter and lavage are used, the accuracy of detecting abdominal trauma is 95 per cent. When only needle paracentesis is used, the accuracy drops to 47 per cent. Abdominal lavage fluid can be analyzed for bacteria, whole blood, white blood cells, free bilirubin, creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, amylase, alkaline phosphatase, and alanine aminotransferase. Large volumes of whole blood recovered from abdominal or thoracic paracentesis can be reinfused into the patient if needed, providing it is not contaminated or markedly hemolyzed. The blood should be collected aseptically into blood bottles or bags. If the bleeding is ongoing or the blood only a few hours old, anticoagulants should be used. If the hemorrhage is several hours old, then clotting and defibrination has already occurred and the blood can be collected into "dry" bags or bottles. Before use, abdominal blood should be analyzed for urine, bile or fecal contamination. Blood collected from the thoracic cavity is much less likely to be contaminated. Autotransfused blood is administered through a standard blood administration set.