Evaluation of anesthesia effects in a rat animal model using otoacoustic emission protocols

Anesthesia effects on otoacoustic emission (OAE) recordings were evaluated in a group of 72 Sprague-Dawley rats (mean weight 225+/-20 gr). Two anesthesia dosages (high and normal) and two anesthetic protocols (ketamine-xylazine, ketamine-xylazine-atropine) were tested. Transient evoked OAE (TEOAE) and distortion product OAE (DPOAE) responses were recorded in 10 min intervals, for a total period of 60 min. Analyses of the data with repeated measure models indicated the following: (1) The animals receiving a high dose of anesthesia (cumulative dose 66.6 mg of ketamine and 13.2 mg of xylazine/kg of body weight) presented significant alterations of the TEOAE response level and the signal to noise ratio at 3.0 kHz; (2) the animals receiving a normal dose of ketamine-xylazine anesthesia (cumulative dose 50 mg of ketamine and 10 mg of xylazine/kg of body weight) presented TEOAE and DPOAE responses invariant in terms of time; (3) significant differences were observed in the DPOAE responses from animals anesthetized with ketamine-xylazine and ketamine-xylazine-atropine. The data support the hypothesis that the ketamine anesthesia OAE suppressing mechanism is related to middle-ear mechanics.