[Reflections on anesthetic risk]

All anaesthetic drugs and techniques inhere risks, that can cause illness and death even in the sound. Beside this common anaesthetic risk caused by anaesthesia itself, risks specific for the patient and the surgery, the influence of the anaesthetist and the available facilities are additional factors contributing to the risk involved for any particular animal. In this article the factors in anaesthetic risk and their importance for the individual risk of a patient are discussed. Distinct is that a systemic disease and the resulting incapacity stand for a much higher risk than anaesthesia by itself or the surgery. Beside the preoperative physical status the urgency of the operation has a decisive influence upon the anaesthetic risk. Deficient monitoring and an unrecognized and/or untreated respiratory depression are the most common reasons for anaesthetic death in veterinary medicine. The anaesthetist has a profound bearing on the degree of risk to which a patient is exposed, because most of the avoidable anaesthetic mishaps are caused by human mistakes. The individual anaesthetic risk of a patient is determined with the help of the preanaesthetic examination. Referring to the factors in anaesthetic risk strategies for the prevention of anaesthetic mishaps and complications are discussed.