[Complications during myelographic examination in dogs]

The occurrence of spinal disease in dogs is quite frequent. Clinical examination and survey radiography do not allow to make an exact diagnosis in many cases. Therefore the radiographic method-myelograhy is used to make an exact diagnosis and to locate the pathological process in the spinal cord. Myelography can be accompanied by some complications caused by a contrast medium of anaesthesia. In this study, the occurrence of complications was evaluated when the contrast medium Dimer X and three types of general anaesthesia were used: xylazine-ketamine, chlorpromazine-piritramide, chlorpromazine-pentobarbital. Certain relations between the origin of complications, dog weight and total time of anaesthesia are indicated. The results obtained show that the highest number of cases with complicated regeneration was observed after the use of the combination xylazine-ketamine when the average duration of anesthesia was 31.1 minutes comparing to the combination chlorpromazine-pentobarbitale with average duration of anaesthesia was 127.7 minutes with the lowest number of complications. We also refer to certain relations between weight and the occurrence of complications where the highest correlation (r = 0.59) was recorded for xylazine-ketamine anaesthesia. The correlation coefficient (r = 0.27) for chlorpromazine-pentobarbital documents very low correlations of the followed values.