The Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing is an academic center affiliated with the Division of Toxicological Sciences in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences of the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Text Size:

Research Grants 2002-2003

Reducing Postoperative Pain and Distress in Mice

Alicia Z. Karas, DVM
Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts

Postoperative pain in laboratory rodents is often not adequately addressed by investigator, for several reasons. One reason for lack of giving pain medications to rodents is the inability to detect overt signs of pain or distress. There is also a genuine lack of knowledge about the administration and effects of pain medications that may lead to their omission from protocols. Although doses of analgesics for rodents are listed in the most current laboratory animal texts, and a few articles have been published regarding suggested techniques, studies to show true efficacy are comparatively rare. There is thus a need to make published information available regarding the presence and extent and treatment of postoperative pain in the mouse.

The weight loss and behavioral data that we have completed thus far tell us that some factor about surgery leads to a serious physiologic/metabolic setback in mice. It may or may not be pain, and main may be one of many contributing factors. We are proposing to study a number of interventions that might improve the welfare of the mouse portoperatively. These interventions will consist of pain medications, fluid and nutrition support, thermal support, and combinations of all interventions. The objective of our work is to use a relatively small number of mice to study techniques and interventions that will reduce postoperative distress. If we are successful, we can make recommendations to investigators and ICES that will not only improve welfare of mice, but theoretically result in less morbidity, and remove a potentially significant source of confounding from studies.