The effect of lidocaine on gastrointestinal motility in dogs | VETgirl Veterinary Continuing Education Podcasts

Lidocaine is a sodium channel blocker that is widely used in both large and small animal medicine as a local anesthetic, analgesic, and as a class 1B antiarrhythmic. A perhaps less common application for this medication in small animal medicine is as a gastrointestinal promotility agent in cases of ileus. The effects of lidocaine on improving the clinical signs of ileus in post-operative horses (1) and humans (2) have already been documented. However, what about dogs? So, Johnson et al out of the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine wanted to evaluate the effect of lidocaine on gastrointestinal motility in dogs. The authors aimed at measuring the effects of lidocaine CRI’s at two different doses on the gastrointestinal transit times of healthy adult canines as compared to saline CRI controls (3).