Omnican

Inhalational anesthesia with isoflurane in a mixture of oxygen and nitric oxide through a face mask was administered before the sciatic nerve block. The body temperature of the mice was maintained at 37 °C using a hot plate. The sciatic nerve block was performed percutaneously by injection of local anesthetics using a 29-GA needle (Omnican^®, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Melsungen, Germany). During the injection of local anesthetics, the mouse was put in a lateral position so that the leg on which the block was performed formed a right angle with the longitudinal axis of the torso. The needle was introduced posteromedially in the direction of the greater trochanter of the femur and directed anteromedially. The local anesthetics were injected upon contact of the needle with the bone [27 (link)]. Eighty-five microliters of local anesthetics was used to achieve a sufficient dose of LB and BH.

The animals were kept with artificial lighting on a 12:12‐hour light‐dark cycle. Room temperature was kept constant at 23°C, and the animals were provided with water and rodent chow ad libitum. The mice were 8‐10 weeks old when used for experiments. The weight range was 19‐21 g and an equal number of male and female mice were used. All experimental procedures were performed while animals were anaesthetized as described below. A single i.v. catheter (polyethylene, i.d. 0.28 mm and o.d. 0.61 mm, Portex, Smiths Medical International Ltd, Kent, UK) was connected to a 30G insulin syringe (Omnican, B. Braun Melsungen, Melsungen, Germany) and placed in a tail vein.

30 min after coming out of the hyperbaric chamber, all the animals were anesthetized by induction with isoflurane (Bellamont, firstly at 5% then 2%), then by intraperitoneal injection (1 ml syringe, Omnican, B. Braun, Melsungen, Germany) of a mixture of ketamine (Imalgene 1000, 100 mg/kg, AstraZeneca, London, UK), acepromazine (Calmivet, 1,65 mg/kg, Vétoquinol S.A., Lure, France) and xylazine (Rompun 2%, 16 mg/kg, Bayer HealthCare, KVP, Kiel, Germany).
At the end of the experiment, rats were sacrificed by an injection of sodium pentobarbital (200 mg/kg IP; Sanofi, Paris, France).