THE FACTORS OF BLOOD TRANSFUSION AFTER LIVER LOBECTOMY IN DOGS AND CATS
Liver lobectomy is performed in dogs and cats for the treatment of liver neoplasia, injuries or twist-ing. The dogs and cats undergoing liver lobectomy have a high need for blood transfusion, and higher need for transfusion should be expected in dogs with preoperative anemia and cats with postopera- tive anemia. The research objective was to deter- mine the frequency of blood transfusions, mortality and factors associated with blood transfusions in dogs and cats which had undergone liver lobecto- my. The study was performed on 63 dogs and 9 cats (owned by customers) that had undergone liver lobectomy at specialized veterinary center from August 2013 to June 2018. The data from clin- ical results of blood tests before and after surgery, surgical methods, the number and identity of delet- ed lobes, parallel surgical procedures, hemiabdomens found during operations, blood transfusion rate and survival before discharge from the veterinary clinic (for calculating mortality) were studied. The data were compared between patients who required and did not need blood transfusion. The assessment of potential dependencies be- tween specific factors (age, body weight, preopera- tive hemoabdomain, pre-and postoperative hema- tocrit and also the concentration of solids in blood plasma, surgical method of lobectomy, the number and volume of removed lobes, simultaneous per- formance of other surgical procedures and survival in the clinic before discharge) and the need for pre- operative blood transfusion was given. As a result of researches it was revealed that 11 of 63 (17 %) dogs and 4 of 9 cats needed blood transfusion. The mortality of dogs made 8 %, cats - 22 %. Pre- and postoperative concentration and total solids content in plasma was lower, and the mortality rate was significantly higher in dogs requiring transfusion than in dogs not needing transfusion. Postoperative hematocrit was significantly lower in cats requiring transfusion than in cats not needing transfusion.