Pre-anesthetic maternal separation increases pups' locomotor behavior during emergence from anesthesia in rats.
BACKGROUND
Problematic behavior at emergence from anesthesia in children, partly linked with maternal separation, is a major problem in pediatric anesthesia. In humans, as well as in many other mammalian species, such separation causes psychological and behavioral changes. This study was to investigate whether or not pre-anesthetic maternal separation has a similar effect on rat pups.


METHODS
This study was conducted on 66 3-week-old Sprague-Dawley male rats. The rats were divided into two groups; pups housed with a dam (n = 33) and those housed without (n = 33). Pups were anesthetized with 1.2% halothane for 30 min. Afterwards we recorded their locomotor behavior at emergence from general anesthesia using a video tracking system.


RESULTS
Pre-anesthetic maternal separation significantly increased the maximum velocity and the distance traveled by pups at the emergence.


CONCLUSIONS
Pre-anesthetic maternal separation influenced pups' locomotive behavior at emergence.
Department of Internal Medicine and Anatomy, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA. arainon@med.kochi-ms.ac.jp
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Arai
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Ueda
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Al-Chaer
D000758:Anesthesia; D000818:Animals; D008297:Male; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D009043:Motor Activity; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley