Refining pain management in mice by comparing multimodal analgesia and NSAID monotherapy for neurosurgical procedures

Munk, Anna and Philippi, Vanessa and Buchecker, Verena and Bankstahl, Marion and Glasenapp, Aylina and Blutke, Andreas and Michelakaki, Effrosyni and Talbot, Steven Roger and Huwyler, Jorg and Jirkof, Paulin and Kopaczka, Marcin and Merhof, Dorit and Palme, Rupert and Potschka, Heidrun (2024) Refining pain management in mice by comparing multimodal analgesia and NSAID monotherapy for neurosurgical procedures. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, 14 (1): 18691. ISSN 2045-2322

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Abstract

While neurosurgical interventions are frequently used in laboratory mice, refinement efforts to optimize analgesic management based on multimodal approaches appear to be rather limited. Therefore, we compared the efficacy and tolerability of combinations of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug carprofen, a sustained-release formulation of the opioid buprenorphine, and the local anesthetic bupivacaine with carprofen monotherapy. Female and male C57BL/6J mice were subjected to isoflurane anesthesia and an intracranial electrode implant procedure. Given the multidimensional nature of postsurgical pain and distress, various physiological, behavioral, and biochemical parameters were applied for their assessment. The analysis revealed alterations in Neuro scores, home cage locomotion, body weight, nest building, mouse grimace scales, and fecal corticosterone metabolites. A composite measure scheme allowed the allocation of individual mice to severity classes. The comparison between groups failed to indicate the superiority of multimodal regimens over high-dose NSAID monotherapy. In conclusion, our findings confirmed the informative value of various parameters for assessment of pain and distress following neurosurgical procedures in mice. While all drug regimens were well tolerated in control mice, our data suggest that the total drug load should be carefully considered for perioperative management. Future studies would be of interest to assess potential synergies of drug combinations with lower doses of carprofen.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: MOUSE GRIMACE SCALE; SUSTAINED-RELEASE; FACIAL EXPRESSIONS; BUPRENORPHINE; PHARMACOKINETICS; MELOXICAM; ANESTHESIA; VASECTOMY; CARPROFEN; BEHAVIOR; 3R; Severity assessment; Multimodal analgesia; Craniotomy; Postsurgical pain
Subjects: 000 Computer science, information & general works > 004 Computer science
600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine
Divisions: Informatics and Data Science > Department Computational Life Science > Chair of Image Analysis and Computer Vision (Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dorit Merhof)
Depositing User: Dr. Gernot Deinzer
Date Deposited: 28 Jan 2026 06:51
Last Modified: 28 Jan 2026 06:51
URI: https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/65106

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