Important: There has been an erratum issued for this article.
Read more… Pritchett-Corning, K. R., Mulder, G. B., Luo, Y.,
White, W. J. Principles of Rodent Surgery for the New Surgeon.
J. Vis. Exp. (47), e2586, doi:10.3791/2586 (2011). For both
scientific and animal welfare reasons, training in basic
surgical concepts and techniques should be undertaken before
ever seeking to perform surgery on a rodent. Students, post-
doctoral scholars, and others interested in performing surgery
on rodents as part of a research protocol may not have had
formal surgical training as part of their required coursework.
Surgery itself is a technical skill, and one that will improve
with practice. The principles of aseptic technique, however,
often remain unexplained or untaught. For most new surgeons,
this vital information is presented in piecemeal fashion or
learned on the job, neither of which is ideal. It may also make
learning how to perform a particular surgery difficult, as the
new surgeon is learning both a surgical tec