Epidural Anaesthesia in Young Pigs, Dosage in Relation to the Length of the Vertebral Column

Abstract

Using a radiopaque contrast medium and a local anaesthetic injected epidurally in 70 young pigs, measuring 40—100 cm in length and weighing 6—65 kg, it was investigated how far foreward the anaesthetic penetrated for every 2 ml injected epidurally. As a result of this a simple rule has been formulated for the number of ml anaesthetic needed for a laparotomy in young pigs. The same dosage schedule used for epidural anaesthesia in dogs recommended by the author Strande (1968) could be used for pigs 40—100 cm in vertebral column length. It is pointed out that the large interarcuate space between L7/S1 will facilitate the inducing of epidural anaesthesia. Records of over 1000 cases of epidural anaesthesia for lapararo-tomies carried out by inexperienced undergraduate veterinary students are mentioned.