Bipolar electrode implantation for myoelectrical recordings of rat bowel

This report describes a technique to implant bipolar electrodes into the rat bowel. We implanted a total of 129 pairs of bipolar electrodes into the bowel of rats. 124 pairs of electrodes (96.3%) have continuously functioned allowing repeated myoelectrical readings. Of these, 69 electrodes functioned over 8 weeks. Only 5 electrodes (3.7%) failed. The advantage of our technique includes: (1) high success rate in implantation, (2) long term durability, and (3) less technical difficulty.