Comparative Anesthesia and Analgesia of Laboratory Animals

Flecknell, PA; Thomas, AA

doi:10.1002/9781119421375.ch39

Comparative Anesthesia and Analgesia of Laboratory Animals

Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Paul Flecknell ORCiD, Dr Aurelie Thomas

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Abstract

© 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. This chapter describes some properties of commonly used sedative, anesthetic, and analgesic agents for laboratory animals. Inhalants (mainly isoflurane and sevoflurane) are becoming increasingly popular in laboratory animal anesthesia for a number of reasons. Chloral hydrate is used occasionally in rodent anesthesia for neuropharmacology studies. Tribromoethanol is used primarily in mice although its popularity has declined markedly because of undesirable side-effects. Despite growing emphasis on animal welfare and refinement of animal models, less than 25% of laboratory rodents undergoing surgical procedure are given analgesic drugs. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the second most commonly administered agents for pain relief in rodents and other laboratory animal species. Despite their abundant use in animal models of chronic pain, very few studies have looked at the benefit of gabapentin and pregabalin in laboratory animals as part of postsurgical pain management. Finally, the chapter discusses laboratory rodents and lagomorphs, and non-human primates.