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Updated: Jun 23, 2025
Assessing Changes in Volatile General Anesthetic Sensitivity of Mice after Local or Systemic Pharmacological Intervention
Published on: October 16, 2013
Incidence and type of voluntary reported perianesthetic medication errors in community veterinary clinics in Calgary,
Renata H Pinho1, Dorothy Tscheng2, Jagjit S Cheema3
1Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Objective:
To collect medication error (ME) data during the perianesthetic period from small animal clinics.
Sample:
6 small animal general practice veterinary clinics.
Methods:
Small animal general practice veterinary clinics were recruited in this prospective observational study, with staff given a presentation on medical errors and instructed on how to submit medication error reports to an online reporting system. Errors were classified according to type and timing.
Results:
A total of 2,728 general anesthesia or sedation procedures were performed, with 49 ME reports submitted. One duplicated report of the same error was excluded, resulting in a ME rate of 1.8%. Most reports (69% [33/48]) were near misses. The remaining 31% were MEs that reached the patient but did not cause harm. Wrong dose errors were the most common type (63% [30/48]), of which 80% (24/30) were calculation errors. Premedication/sedation and maintenance were the most reported stages, at 47% (20/43) and 23% (10/43), respectively. None of the MEs reported resulted in an adverse event, with an approximately 2:1 ratio of near-miss to no-harm MEs. The observed patterns of MEs reported, including type and timing, represent a target for further education.
Clinical Relevance:
These results quantify the ME rate in general practice veterinary clinics, providing an initial benchmark for MEs during the perianesthetic period.
