Assessment of propofol anesthesia in the rabbit

• Autor(a) principal: Campos, Sónia Patrícia Seabra
• Data de Publicação: 2010
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10348/745

The growing interests in propofol as an intravenous anesthetic agent and in particular to its use in rabbits were the motivation for this work. The rabbit is the third most common pet, and is also used as a biomedical research model in a wide range of science branches such as pharmacology, toxicology, anesthesiology and surgery. The main goal of this study was to explore the effects of Total Intravenous Anesthesia (TIVA) with propofol in rabbits. Different infusion rates were administrated to obtain different anesthetic depths. Blood samples were collect before, during and after anesthesia, in previously determined moments. Propofol and propofol non-conjugated metabolites concentrations were determined in the collected blood serum by Gas Chromatography/ Ion Trap-Mass Spectrometry (GC/IT-MS). This information allowed the study of the drug pharmacodynamic profile in the rabbit, and to understand the effects of propofol on the cardio-respiratory system, clinical signs of anesthetic depth and electroencephalogram (EEG). Furthermore, the correlation between these variables and non-conjugated propofol metabolites plasma concentrations also help to understand the pharmacodynamic characterization of the drug. This study will also aid the anesthetists to better understand the rabbit anesthesia with propofol and provides important information for toxicology studies when this drug is used. The rabbits shares many clinical signs of Propofol Infusion Syndrome (PRIS) observed in humans. The analyses of the free propofol metabolites (2,6-diisopropyl-1,4-quinone and 2,6-diisopropyl-1,4-quinol) done in these studies, allowed to understand how they interact in the rabbit. These are important components to be analyzed more in depth in future studies. These studies showed great potential for translation studies between rabbits and humans.