Comparative healing of surgical incisions created by a standard "bovie," the Utah Medical Epitome Electrode, and a Bard-Parker cold scalpel blade in a porcine model: a pilot study.

A comparative study of skin incision healing using a standard "bovie" and a new design electroscalpel, Utah Medical Products Epitome Electrode (Midvale, UT), was conducted in a porcine model. Wounds were evaluated objectively at 14 and 28 days after surgery using wound bursting strength measurements and histologic wound scoring. Each electrosurgical device was compared with wound healing of cold scalpel incisions as the gold standard using the same criteria.

Anesthesia rapidly suppresses insulin pulse mass but enhances the orderliness of insulin secretory process.

Induction of anesthesia is accompanied by modest hyperglycemia and a decreased plasma insulin concentration. Most insulin is secreted in discrete pulses occurring at approximately 6- to 8-min intervals. We sought to test the hypothesis that anesthesia inhibits insulin release by disrupting pulsatile insulin secretion in a canine model by use of direct portal vein sampling.

Measurement of insulin pulsatility by sampling directly from the portal vein: a surgical model for placement of long-term prehepatic vascular sampling catheters.

A practical and repeatable method for measurement of pulsatile insulin release in the dog was developed by direct, chronic cannulation of the portal vein cephalad to the pancrease and the entry point of the cranial pancreaticoduodenal vein, with subsequent exteriorization of the sampling catheter. Mixed breed male dogs of various body weights and ages underwent midline laparotomy for exposure of the portal vein system. After exposure the portal vein was dissected free and cannulated through a purse-string suture placed just caudad (approximately 1 cm) to the entry point of the cranial pancreaticoduodenal vein with a cuffed, medical grade, silastic catheter.

Sensory and associative effects of LSD on classical appetitive conditioning of the rabbit jaw movement response.

Three experiments were conducted to determine the effects of LSD (30 nmol/kg) in classical appetitive conditioning of the rabbit jaw movement response (JMR). In experiment 1, LSD significantly enhanced the acquisition of conditioned responses (CRs). The performance of control groups receiving unpaired presentations of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (UCS) demonstrated that LSD's enhancing effect on conditioning could not be attributed to an elevation in baseline responding, sensitization, or pseudoconditioning.