Etomidate: a valuable anaesthetic for mice

Etomidate, a new nonbarbiturate short-acting hypnotic agent, was effective in anaesthetizing laboratory mice at a dose of 23.7 +/- 1.5 mg/kg bodyweight ip. Surgical anaesthesia developed which permitted the performance of operations upon the animals for at least 20 minutes after induction. In these mice (LACA-2 and C57-BL strains), doses up to 33 mg/kg were tolerated. Recovery from anaesthesia was uncomplicated.