The 2025 revision of the ACVAA Small Animal Monitoring Guidelines represents a significant advancement in patient safety and anesthetic care, since the last revision in 2009. Developed by a diverse group of ACVAA diplomates and members of the North American Veterinary Anesthesia Society, the 2025 guidelines include updates in hemodynamic, respiratory, and thermoregulatory monitoring.
Additionally, the guidelines now feature expanded recommendations for neuromuscular blockade monitoring, enhanced personnel protocols, and detailed record-keeping practices, including the use of checklists for patient safety. Basic, advanced, and alternative recommendations are featured in order to be inclusive of the variety of clinical settings in which small animal patients are anesthetized. A straightforward table of recommendations is included, with details and supporting information in the text. Finally, the guidelines provide information on monitoring small animal patients through the immediate recovery period and during procedural sedation.
These guidelines have been published as open access in Veterinary Anaesthesia & Analgesia and are available HERE or you can paste the following link in your browser: https://www.vaajournal.org/article/S1467-2987(25)00071-6/fulltext