Recovery from carotid artery catheterization performed under various anesthetics in male, Sprague-Dawley rats

This study was designed to determine the time to recovery from carotid arte ry catheterization using multiple criteria and to compare recovery times be tween three common anesthetics. Male Sprague-Dawley rats, chronically instr umented with radio-telemetry transmitters, were anesthetized with sodium pe ntobarbital, halothane or a mixture of ketamine, xylazine and acepromazine before an indwelling catheter was placed in the carotid artery. The procedu re was completed in less than 15 min. Changes in body weight, food and wate r consumption, blood pressure, heart rate and activity were used to determi ne recovery. As judged by recovery of body weight, animals anesthetized wit h each of the anesthetics recovered by the 4th day after catheterization. F ood and water consumption normalized by 1-2 days after surgery. Heart rates and blood pressures during the light phase of the photoperiod were signifi cantly increased for 2 days by all anesthetics. During the dark phase of th e photoperiod, heart rates and blood pressures were not significantly affec ted by pentobarbital or halothane anesthesia, but were significantly decrea sed and increased respectively on the night immediately following surgery i n the ketamine/xylazine/acepromazine-anesthetized rats. Delayed elevations of heart rate were observed in pentobarbital and halothane anesthetized rat s on days and/or nights 5 and 6 post surgery. Animal activity patterns duri ng the light phase of the photoperiod were not affected by pentobarbital or halothane, but were increased by ketamine 2 days after surgery. During the dark phase, halothane transiently reduced activity whereas ketamine-anesth etized rats showed reduced activity for 4 nights post surgery. These studie s show that recovery depends on the criteria selected and the anesthetic us ed, but, in general, 24 days were required for recovery from this relativel y simple procedure.