Deep anesthesia in the rat with the combined action of droperidol-fentanyl and pentobarbital.

A combination of droperidol-fentanyl and pentobarbital, administered ip, was used to obtain a state of deep anesthesia in rats for purposes of radionuclide imaging, as well as for various surgical procedures. Two or more hr of anesthesia were easily obtained. A 7.2% mortality rate (3/42) was experienced in a 3-mo study in which 5.2 procedures per rat were performed. The duration of anesthesia was found to vary both with sex and with the time of day at which the drugs were administered.