Effects of repeated anesthesia by thiopental in neonatal period on PTZ-induced convulsions and pain responses during maturation in rats

  Introduction: General anesthetics during critical periods of brain development may cause some serious malformations or side effects. Anesthetic drugs can involve in the brain development and synaptogenesis at the critical period of development. There are some controversy with regards the effects of (neurodegenerative or neuroprotective) barbiturates on brain. The aim of the present study was to investigate the possible relation between repeated induced thiopental (a GABAA agonist) anesthesia at the postnatal period and pentylentetrazol-induced convulsions and pain responses in adult in the Wistar rats.   Materials and methods: 40 male neonate rats were divided into experimental and sham groups. The experimental group (n=20) was deeply anesthetized with thiopental (30 mg/kg daily) during 10 to 20-days of post- natal period and physiologic serum was used for sham animals. After maturation of male rats, the PTZ - induced seizures were induced by daily interapritoneally injection of PTZ (45 mg/kg), and the latency of the appearance of generalized epileptiform behaviors was recorded. Pain responses were also evaluated using tail-flick and formalin tests.   Results : No significant differences were found in the lantency of the appearance of behavioural convulsions and pain sensitivity between experimental and sham groups.   Conclusion: Our findings indicate that prior exposure to thiopental during nenonatal stage has no effects on PTZ-induced seizures and also pain responses after maturation. Developmental compensatory mechanisms may protect the brian against the possible damage that induced by repeated thipopental during neonatal period.