Improving Stereotaxic Neurosurgery Techniques and Procedures Greatly Reduces the Number of Rats Used per Experimental Group—A Practice Report

Techniques of stereotaxic surgery are commonly used in research laboratories by a range of students, technicians, and researchers. To meet the evolving requirements imposed by international legislation, and to promote the implementation of 3R rules (replacement, reduction, and refinement) by reducing experimental error, animal morbidity, and mortality, it is essential that standard operating procedures and proper conduct following such complex surgeries be precisely described and respected. The present report shows how refinements of our own neurosurgical techniques over decades, have significantly reduced the number of animals (rats) used in experiments and improved the animals’ well-being during the post-surgical recovery period. The current pre-, per-, and post-surgical procedures used in our laboratory are detailed. We describe the practical aspects of stereotaxic neurosurgery that have been refined in our laboratory since 1992 and that cover various areas including appropriate anesthesia and pain management during and after surgery, methods to determine the stereotaxic coordinates, and the best approach to the target brain structure. The application of these optimal surgical methods that combine reliable and reproducible results with an acute awareness of ethics and animal welfare leads to a significant reduction in the number of animals included in experimental research in accordance with ethical and regulatory rules as required by the European Directive on laboratory animal welfare.

Opioids cause dissociated states of consciousness in C57BL/6J mice

The electroencephalogram (EEG) provides an objective, neural correlate of consciousness. Opioid receptors modulate mammalian neuronal excitability, and this fact was used to characterize how opioids administered to mice alter EEG power and states of consciousness. The present study tested the hypothesis that antinociceptive doses of fentanyl, morphine, or buprenorphine differentially alter the EEG and states of sleep and wakefulness in adult, male C57BL/6J mice. Mice were anesthetized and implanted with telemeters that enabled wireless recordings of cortical EEG and electromyogram (EMG). After surgical recovery, EEG and EMG were used to objectively score states of consciousness as wakefulness, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, or non-REM (NREM) sleep. Measures of EEG power (dB) were quantified as delta (0.5 to 4 Hz), theta (4 to 8 Hz), alpha (8 to 13 Hz), sigma (12 to 15 Hz), beta (13 to 30 Hz), and gamma (30 to 60 Hz). Compared to saline (control), fentanyl and morphine decreased NREM sleep, morphine eliminated REM sleep, and buprenorphine eliminated NREM sleep and REM sleep. Opioids significantly and differentially disrupted the temporal organization of sleep/wake states, altered specific EEG frequency bands, and caused dissociated states of consciousness. The results are discussed relative to the fact that opioids, pain, and sleep modulate interacting states of consciousness.

Impact of preoperative surgical anxiety on postoperative surgical recovery among surgical patients: role of surgical coping

Objective: The present study examined the moderating impact of surgical coping in the relationship between pre-operative surgical anxiety and post-operative surgical recovery in surgical patients. Methods: The study was carried out in surgical departments of various hospitals situated in different areas of Province of the Punjab including Allied Hospital Faisalabad, DHQ Teaching Hospital Sargodha, Jinnah Hospital Lahore and Margalla Institute of Health Sciences Rawalpindi over the period of one-year May 1, 2018 to May 1, 2019. It was a descriptive research based on survey research design A purposive sample of pre-operative and post-operative surgical patients (N = 200) from Amsterdam Pre-operative Anxiety and Information Scale1, Surgical Recovery Scale2, and Coping with Surgical Stress Scale3 were used to collect information on study variables. Moderation analysis applied through PROCESS Marco 3.2. Results: Findings revealed that only two coping strategies including threat avoidance (p<.001) and information seeking (p<.001) moderated the relationship between surgical anxiety and surgical recovery of surgical patients. Conclusion: The study shed light on the importance of educating surgical patients regarding the use of appropriate coping strategies for their prompt recovery from surgery. The study has applied significance in the field of health psychology in general and for surgical patients in particular. Keywords: Surgical anxiety, surgical recovery, coping, threat avoidance, information seeking. Continuous...