Acute, non-recovery surgery

If an animal undergoes a surgical procedure under anaesthesia and is euthanased before recovering consciousness the development of postoperative infection may still be a problem if the period of anaesthesia is prolonged (e.g. greater than 12 hours). In any non-recovery surgery minimising bacterial contamination of the surgical field is still important because inoculation of the wound with large numbers of bacteria will produce physiological changes in the animal that may influence experimental results. Observing the principals of aseptic technique is the most effective way of minimising bacterial contamination during surgery.