Anesthesia for the Experimental Rats

Choi,  Hee Rack; Ko,  Jong Hyun; Lee,  Hae Beom; Lee,  Jun Mo

doi:2013.22.1.1

Arch Hand Microsurg > Volume 22(1); 2013 > Article

Review

Journal of the Korean Society for Surgery of the Hand 2013;22(1):1-6.
Published online May 31, 2013.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.12790/jkssh.2013.22.1.1

Anesthesia for the Experimental Rats

Hee-Rack Choi*,†, Jong-Hyun Ko*,†, Hae Beom Lee‡, Jun-Mo Lee*,†

¹Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Chonbuk National University Medical School, Jeonju, Korea. junmolee@jbnu.ac.kr
²Biomedical Research Institute, Chonbuk National University Hospital, Jeonju, Korea.
³College of Veterinary Medicine, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, Korea.

실험용 쥐의 마취

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Received: 2 March 2013 • Accepted: 4 March 2013

Abstract

  Rats and mice are commonly used in experimental laboratories and anesthetic drugs are important for researchers to understand the details. Administration of fluids helps to stabilize the experimental animals before anesthesia via intravenously through the lateral vein in rats and in case of difficulty in catheterization and maintenance, fluids are usually administered as boluses. Large volumes of cool fluids will rapidly lead to hypothermia and all parenteral fluids must be warmed to body temperature before administration. Premedication with a sedative may ease induction with volatile anesthetic drugs. The first choice for rodent anesthesia is complete inhalational anesthesia. The second option is using injectable anesthesia. Recovery from the volatile agents that have been used rapid when the agent is no longer administered. Anesthetic monitoring equipment is an infant-size bell sthethoscope that can be used to ausculate the heart and lungs. Supplemental heating should be provided to reduce the heat loss supply and maintain core body temperature. The kinds of drugs, characteristics, route of administration and care after surgery were reviewed and summarized from the references. Anesthetic drugs, maintenance, monitoring and aftercare are important in the laboratories to keep the animal safe in all experimental procedures.

Key Words: Anethetics, Rats, Mice