A retrospective evaluation of complications in 1798 Equids undergoing 3T magnetic resonance imaging at one referral hospital

The current study aims to investigate the complication rate of equine appendicular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed under general anesthesia at a tertiary referral center. 1655 horses, donkeys, and mules were included in the study. A complication rate of 1.5% was found in this 9-year study period. The most common complication was post-anesthetic fever with 11 horses becoming pyrexic in the immediate post-anesthetic period. Four of these horses went on to develop clinical pneumonia and one horse had an outbreak of respiratory herpesvirus. The incidence of neuropathy was 0.4% and colic was 0.4%. This study concludes that peri-anesthetic antimicrobial administration would not decrease the risk of complications in horses or donkeys undergoing general anesthesia for MRI of the appendicular skeleton at this tertiary referral center.