Effects of Injectable Anesthetics on Fluorescein Retinal Angiographic Phases in Dogs

This study compared the effect of injectable combinations of anesthetics on each of the fluorescein angiographic phases in order to determine the most useful anesthetic combination for the procedure. Acepromazineketamine (AK), xylazine-ketamine (XK), diazepam-ketamine (DK) and zolazepam-tiletamine (ZT) group were administered randomly to 8 dogs with a two-week interval between different combination doses. The vital signs including the heart rate and arterial pressure were measured before anesthesia and every five minutes during anesthesia. Serial angiographic images were obtained after injecting a sodium fluorescein dye (25 mg/kg) and the onset time of arterial phase (AP), arteriovenous phase (AVP), early venous phase (EVP) and late venous phases (LVP) were recorded. The onset time of the AP, AVP and EVP were significantly slower in the AK and XK groups than in the DK and ZT groups. The total duration of the AP and AVP in the AK group was significantly longer than those in the ZT group. The heart rates were significantly higher in the DK and ZT groups. The arterial pressure was significantly higher in the AK and XK groups (p<0.05). There were significant differences in each angiographic onset time and duration depending on the changes in the heart rates and arterial pressure. The AK and XK groups showed a long angiographic duration allowing an accurate evaluation. Overall, it is believed that AK and XK are more useful for performing fluorescein retinal angiography than DK and ZT.