Anesthesia and Intubation of Preadolescent Mouse Pups for Cardiothoracic Surgery

Cardiothoracic surgical models in mice >7 days old require intubation, but this is challenging for preadolescent (8-14-day-old) mouse pups and there is little information on anesthetic regimens for intubation. Here, we present dosage regimens of ketamine/xylazine/atropine in 10-day-old C57BL/6J mouse pups that allow endotracheal intubation, while minimizing animal mortality.