The potential benefit of local anaesthetics during routine ovariohysterectomy

Abstract

Registered veterinary nurses (RVNs) play an essential and responsible role in pain management by identifying and alerting the veterinary surgeon (VS) to allow the appropriate management of pain. This comes with a legal and moral obligation in accordance with the Animal Welfare Act (2006) and the Code of Professional Conduct for Veterinary Nurses to provide prompt analgesia to their patients. Ovariohysterectomy is a common procedure performed within veterinary practices. It is a painful procedure and appropriate analgesia is paramount otherwise there could be compromises to the patient's recovery. Patients with inappropriately managed analgesia are more likely to interfere with their wound and have an increased risk for surgical site infections. Using local anaesthetics during the procedure is likely to show intraoperative and postoperative benefits to the patient. RVNs can be the leading force for a multimodal analgesia approach by using current evidence-based research, utilising their skills and applying their knowledge to collaborate with the VS to provide exceptional care for their patients. This will provide further evidence and justification towards the protection the RVN title.