A recent article in Science Direct for Veterinarians discusses how technology that's used in smartphones and other electronic devices is also being used by veterinarians at the University of Illinois to help horses recover safely from anesthesia.
Veterinarian monitoring horse surgery
Recently, scholars at Illinois and several other U.S. veterinary schools began using accelerometers, the same technology found in smart phones, to monitor horses' movements as they awaken from anesthesia.
Because of a horses' size, strength and anatomical structure, sedating them during surgery is a major challenge and the mortality rate for horses is higher than that for humans and other domestic animals.
If horses are lying down for extended periods of time while sedated, their body weight can crush blood vessels, cutting off blood flow to their muscles and causing those muscles to begin to die. If that occurs, horses are unable to stand again when they come out of the anesthesia.
When horses are lying on their sides for surgery, their large intestinal tracts can compress their lungs, making it difficult for them to breathe.
Horses also are at great risk when they're awakening from general anesthesia because their strong "fight or flight" instinct compels them to stand up right away even though they may be disoriented, weak and ataxic, or imbalanced.
Recently, scholars at Illinois and several other U.S. veterinary schools began using accelerometers, the same type of technology found in smart phones, to monitor horses' movements as they awaken from anesthesia. The technology is also helping to develop protocols that minimize risks of injury.
Stuart C. Clark-Price, a specialist in anesthesiology and pain management at the Veterinary Teaching Hospital at the U. of I., is the lead investigator on the research. Veterinarians at Cornell University and the universities of Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia Tech are collaborating on the project.
In the research project, tri-axis accelerometers are attached to surcingles that wrap around the horses' chests and hold the devices in place over their withers.
As the horses awaken from anesthesia and attempt to stand up, their movements are recorded by the device. The data are later uploaded to a computer and compared to a statistical model that rates each horse's recovery on a 0-100 scale, based upon the amount of difficulty the horse had getting up.
Until now, veterinarians evaluated equine patients' recoveries by viewing videotapes of the horses and assigning scores, but that method can be subjective and arbitrary, Clark-Price said.
Using accelerometers and the statistical model "takes the human element out of it altogether," Clark-Price said. "It's a completely objective way of gathering data on their recovery."