A Dog Is a Doctor’s Best Friend: The Use of a Service Dog as a Perioperative Assistant

Service dogs are beneficial in providing assistance to people with multiple types of disabilities and medical disorders including visual impairment, physical disabilities, seizure disorders, diabetes, and mental illness. Some service animals have been trained as a screening tool for cancer. We review a case involving a 6-year-old female with a history of mast cell mediator release and immediate hypersensitivity due to the urticaria pigmentosa variant of cutaneous mastocytosis who underwent a cystourethroscopy. Her service dog, JJ, who would alert to mast cell mediator release, was used throughout the perioperative course as a means of anxiolysis and comfort and to monitor for mast cell mediator release. This case presents an example of a service dog used in a family-care model in the field of anesthesiology and provides a unique example of using a service dog as an additional monitor to alert the care team for impending mast cell mediator release.

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