Surgical Anesthetic Preparation in the Juvenile NHP

Due to the high demand for NHP’s as research models, and the disruptions that Covid 19 created amongst the suppliers of NHP’s, we have been dealing with a downward trend in the range of body weights in our surgical animals. 4 to 5 years ago, the average size of an NHP that we would be performing a surgical procedure on was around 3.5 kgs. Now, we are routinely performing major surgical procedures on animals from 1.5 kgs to 2.5 kgs. These smaller animals are technically juveniles and they can have different anesthetic needs. This change in size of the animal can create problems ranging from difficult intubation to parasympathetic tone-related hypoxemia events. This presentation will show some of the equipment and techniques that we have implemented, modifications to the drugs used as pre anesthetic medications, and a general shift in the mindset of our anesthetists.