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The Effect Of Ambient Temperature On Recovery Of Surgical Stress In Sprague-Dawley Rats, Romie D. Powell

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

Laboratory animals are housed at ambient temperatures ranging from 20°C – 26°C per recommended guidelines. Rats in particular typically prefer ambient temperatures (Tamb) of ~27°C (Brown et al, 2011). When rats undergo surgical instrumentation for experimental use, they often recover at normal room temperature (~21°C). While this is comfortable to those maintaining them, it may lead to a cold thermal stress for the rats. It is hypothesized that housing rats at ambient temperatures away from their preferred Tamb could lead to a thermal stress, which adversely affects surgical recovery. To address this, rats (220g-350g) were surgically instrumented with a radiotelemetry …