The Louisiana State University (LSU) School of Veterinary Medicine's Veterinary Teaching Hospital recently acquired a high-tech patient monitoring system to assure that anesthetized patients wake up healthy from surgery or an MRI procedure.

This brand new, state-of-the-art MRI-compatible anesthesia monitor is specially designed to withstand the strong static and dynamic magnetic fields in the vicinity of an MRI unit and will be used to monitor heart and lung functions to ensure patients are safe when anesthetized. An MRI is one the most informative and advanced tools available in medicine for the diagnosis of soft tissue and skeletal diseases. To insure optimal imaging, patients must be motionless, which requires deep sedation or general anesthesia in veterinary patients. General anesthesia is associated with a 1% mortality rate in equine patients. Veterinarians hope to dramatically decrease these mortality rates, as well as concomitant (accompanying) anesthetic complications, with the proper monitoring of patients' vital signs.

"This new monitor will enable us to anesthetize our patients with a larger degree of safety," said Anderson da Cunha, DVM, Dipl. ACVA, assistant professor of veterinary anesthesiology at LSU. "This monitor is made out of plastic and other non-ferrous (iron) materials and does not interfere with MRI scanning, and the MRI unit does not interfere with the diagnostic integrity of the anesthesia monitor."

Dean Peter F. Haynes, DVM, added, "Targeted investments in equipment such as this not only improve our ability to help our patients but also enhance the quality education we afford our students