Opioid-free anaesthesia is currently becoming more popular in human medicine, as it provides multimodal analgesia, affecting multiple nociceptive pathways without the use of opioids, in order to minimise opioid-related side effects. This article presents the cases of five dogs undergoing surgical correction of abnormalities associated with brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome, all of whom received opioid-free anaesthesia for surgery. All dogs received a bilateral maxillary nerve block with bupivacaine 0.5% and a combination of non-opioid analgesic drugs. Buprenorphine was allowed during the postoperative period, based on pain assessment. Three out of five dogs received buprenorphine 6–7 hours after the nerve block was performed. Opioid-free anaesthesia provided adequate conditions for surgery and no adverse effects were reported. Prospective controlled studies comparing opioid-free anaesthesia with opioid-based techniques are required to elucidate whether or not opioid-free anaesthesia confers objective advantages.
Maxillary nerve block – a useful supplementary technique in the management of trigeminal neuralgia- a case report
