Use of etorphine-acepromazine and diprenorphine in reversible neuroleptanalgesia of rats.

The death rate due to neuroleptanalgesia (0.35%) was significantly lower than for barbiturate anaesthesia (1.59%). Complications were few even when animals received multiple, repeated, anaesthesia, and depth of anaesthesia could be adjusted easily. Further, it could be reversed within minutes by the specific antagonist diprenorphine.