Procedures

Pre-Operative

1. Surgery should be conducted in a disinfected (Table 1), uncluttered area that promotes asepsis during surgery.
2. Prepare the animal by removing hair from the surgical site. Perform this procedure in an area separate from where the surgery is to be conducted.
3. Prepare the surgical site(s) with an appropriate skin disinfectant (Table 2).
4. Surgeons should wash and dry their hands before aseptically donning sterile surgical gloves.

Operative

5. The animal must be maintained in a surgical plane of anesthesia throughout the procedure.
6. Begin surgery with sterile instruments (Table 3) and handle them aseptically.
7. Instruments and gloves may be used for a series of similar surgeries provided they are maintained clean and disinfected (Table 4) between animals.
8. Monitor and/or maintain the animal’s vital signs.
9. Close surgical wounds using appropriate techniques and materials (Table 5).

Post-Operative

10.  Move the animal to a warm, dry area and monitor it during recovery. Return the animal to its routine housing only after it has fully recovered from anesthesia.
11.  Provide analgesics as appropriate.
12.  Generally, remove skin closures 10 to 14 days post-operatively.
13.  Maintain a surgical record (e.g., annotate cage card with procedure and date)

References

• Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
• Animal Welfare Act Regulations
• NIH Intramural Research Program - Guidelines for Rodent Survival Surgery
• Principles of Aseptic Rodent Survival Surgery: General Training in Rodent Survival Surgery - Part I by P. Brown and S. Hoogstraten-Miller. In: Laboratory Animal Medicine and Management edited by J. Reuter and M. Suckow
• Principles of Aseptic Rodent Survival Surgery: General Training in Rodent Survival Surgery - Part II by P. Brown and S. Hoogstraten-Miller. In: Laboratory Animal Medicine and Management edited by J. Reuter and M. Suckow

Specific procedures to accomplish these guidelines can be obtained from the veterinarian.

Definitions

ASEPTIC SURGICAL PROCEDURES: Surgery performed using procedures that limit microbial contamination so that significant infection or suppuration does not occur.

MAJOR SURGERY: Any surgical intervention that penetrates and exposes a body cavity; any procedure that has the potential for producing permanent physical or physiological impairment; and/or any procedure associated with orthopedics or extensive tissue dissection or transection.

MINOR SURGERY: Any surgical intervention that neither penetrates and exposes a body cavity nor produces permanent impairment of physical or physiologic function. Examples are superficial vascular cutdown and percutaneous biopsy.

STERILIZATION: The process whereby all viable microorganisms are eliminated or destroyed. The criterion of sterilization is the failure of organisms to grow if a growth-supporting medium is supplied.

DISINFECTION: The chemical or physical process that involves the destruction of pathogenic organisms. All disinfectants are effective against vegetative forms of organisms, but not necessarily spores.