The effect on the anaesthetised rabbit of warming the breathing circuit with 40°C liquid

Abstract

During every surgical procedure, one of the aims is to reduce the risk of anaesthesia. Some factors can be influenced, such as core body temperature. The authors wanted to investigate a method that was cheap, efficient and also easy to use in everyday veterinary practice, as well as in more remote settings. The study examined the temperatures of 30 rabbits during inhalational anaesthesia, when using a facemask and T-piece circuit. The rabbits were put in three groups, with two groups inhaling the warmed gas mixture. The inhalational breathing circuit in these two groups was immersed in a 40 ± 1°C heated water chamber. The circuit was 60 cm in the first group and 80 cm in the second group. The third control group inhaled a gas mixture at ambient room temperature. The results indicated that the longer the piece of circuit that was warmed, the less the body temperature of the rabbit dropped. In the control group, at the 40th minute of anaesthesia, the average drop in body temperature was −1.28°C, while in the 60 cm heated group it was −0.65°C, and in the 80 cm heated group it was −0.27°C.