Laboratory Animals > Volume 43, Number 3 > Pp. 239-242

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Original Articles

Determination of the minimum alveolar concentration for halothane, isoflurane and sevoflurane in the gerbil

I A Gómez de Segura ¹ , J Benito de la Víbora ^1 2 and A Criado ³

¹ Department of Animal Medicine and Surgery, Veterinary Faculty, University Complutense of Madrid, Avda. Puerta de Hierro, 28040 Madrid, Spain; ² ECLAM Resident, Experimental Surgery, La Paz University Hospital, Paseo de la Castellana 261, 28046 Madrid, Spain; ³ Laboratory Animal Science Department, GlaxoSmithKline, Verona, Italy

Corresponding author: I A Gómez de Segura. Email: iagsegura{at}vet.ucm.es

The present work determined the minimum alveolar concentrations (MAC) of halothane, isoflurane and sevoflurane in adult female gerbils (n = 24). Animals were placed in a chamber for anaesthetic induction before performing tracheal intubation. The tracheal tube was connected to a non-rebreathing circuit with minimal dead space. Body temperature, blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates and end-tidal volatile anaesthetic levels were measured continuously. MAC was determined using a standard noxious stimulus (tail-clamp). All experiments were performed at the same time of the day, body temperature was maintained constant and blood–gas analysis was performed to confirm that values were within normal limits. The mean ± SD MAC values were 1.06 ± 0.11% halothane (n = 8), 1.55 ± 0.08% isoflurane (n = 8) and 2.90 ± 0.12% sevoflurane (n = 7). Cardiovascular parameters at 1x MAC did not differ significantly among anaesthetics but the respiratory rate was significantly higher in the halothane group than in the isoflurane and sevoflurane groups. The SpO₂ values recorded throughout anaesthesia and the pH and partial oxygen pressure values determined at the end of the study did not differ among the studied anaesthetics at 1x MAC. These data suggest that the MAC for halogenated inhalant anaesthetics in gerbils is lower than the average MAC values obtained in rats and mice.

Key Words: Inhalant anaesthetics • minimum alveolar concentration • gerbil • isoflurane • halothane • sevoflurane

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