Acute changes in serum iron concentrations in anesthetized healthy horses.
Veterinary anaesthesia and analgesia January 1, 2025 Monica Midon, Stuart C Clark-Price, Hui-Chu Lin et al.
In healthy adult horses, serum iron concentrations drop during and after general anesthesia with isoflurane and remain low for at least 24 hours. Before anesthesia, average serum iron was 152 μg/dL; it fell to 136 μg/dL after 60 minutes of anesthesia, 133 μg/dL after 120 minutes, 136 μg/dL immediately after recovery, and 63 μg/dL 24 hours after induction. This acute decrease suggests that general anesthesia may interfere with using serum iron levels to detect or monitor systemic disease and inflammation in horses.