Effects of ketamine anesthesia on the pathological outcome of focal cerebral ischemia model in rats

    LIU Pengª²Bin, CHANG Dan, SONG Zhengª²Chuan£¬DING Xiaoª²Ying£¬ZHANG Zhenª²Ni

    1Department of Anesthesiology, 2Department of Geratology, Second Affiliated Hospital, Medical College, Xi¬ðan Jiaotong University, Xi¬ðan 710004, China

    ¡¾Abstract¡¿ AIM: To compare the effects of pentobarbital and ketamine on the pathological outcome of focal cerebral ischemia model in rats, and evaluate the availability of ketamine in setting of the focal cerebral ischemia. METHODS£ºThirty male Spragueª²Dawley rats were subjected to permanent middle cerebral artery occlusion under pentobarbital or ketamine intraperitoneal anesthesia (n=15 each). The neurological scoring 4 h after ischemia and infarct size 24 h were measured. Histological evaluation was performed using toluidine blue staining at day 3 after middle cerebral artery occlusion. RESULTS: Neither neurological scoring (1.5¡À1.0 vs 1.4¡À0.7) nor mortality rate (42% vs 33%)was significantly different between the pentobarbital and ketamine groups (P>0.05). Infarct size in the ketamine group was smaller than that of the pentobarbital group [(28.1¡À4.1)% vs (37.8¡À5.0)%, P<0.05], and neuronal density of the penumbra in the ketamine group was higher than that of the pentobarbital group [(836¡À15) /mm2 vs (740¡À24) /mm2, P<0.05]. CONCLUSION£ºKetamine anesthesia induces minor brain injury in setting of the focal cerebral ischemia model in rats. When neuroprotective effects of procedures or drugs being studied are evaluated in this particular model, they might provide no additional advantage to cerebral ischemia and this effect should be considered. ......