The Use of an Air-Inflated Pillow for Assisted Recovery After General Anaesthesia in Horses: A Preliminary Study

Different assisted recovery techniques have been developed to enhance the safety and quality of equine recoveries. This case series evaluates the recovery of horses using an air-inflated pillow (Equi-lift^®). With owner consent, the following data were collected from 19 horses undergoing open castration and 21 horses where a difficult recovery was anticipated: age, bodyweight, procedure, anaesthetic protocol, time required for proper positioning in the Equi-lift^®, time to extubation, time to standing, number of attempts to stand, number of stimuli, behaviour during recumbency/first attempts, and overall impression. Horses were 1-24 years old, with a bodyweight of 483.5 ± 106.8 kg. The median time to properly position a horse into the system was 6 min (range: 1-15 min). The recovery duration was 42 min (range: 21-181 min), with a median of 4 attempts (range: 1-12 attempts) and 1 stimulus (range: 0-10) before fully standing. Recovery was calm in most horses (32/40) and moderate (with signs of anxiety and/or excitation) in 3/40 horses. In five horses, the use of this technique was discontinued. All horses recovered without any injuries or other immediate postoperative complications. In conclusion, this recovery technique shows promising results, but further studies are needed to confirm the findings.