History of the Development of Anesthesia for the Dolphin

Abstract

It is important for academic-minded human anesthesiologists to have an interdisciplinary perspective when engaging in cutting-edge research as well as the practice of human anesthesiology. This was a philosophy promoted by Dr. Robert Dripps, former pioneering Chairman of the Anesthesiology Department at the University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Many human and veterinary anesthesiologists as well as biomedical engineers and neuroscientists benefited from Dr. Dripps’s constructive outlook personified in the quest to develop dolphin anesthesiology. The motivation to anesthetize dolphins came from the fact that scientists and physicians wanted to study the brain of the dolphin, a brain as large as man’s. Also, investigators wanted to develop anesthesia for the dolphin in order to study the electrophysiology of the dolphin’s highly sophisticated auditory system, which facilitates the dolphin’s amazing echolocation capability. Dolphin anesthesia involves a complex matter of unique neural control, airway anatomy, neuromuscular control of respiration, and sleep behavior.

Heart rates, heart rate profiles, and electrocardiograms in three killer whales, a beluga, and a pilot whale: An exploratory investigation

“…Such knowledge is relevant for clinical evaluations and procedures of cetaceans under managed care, and for sedation/treatment/disentanglement of wild cetaceans (Moore et al . , McCormick and Ridgway ).…”

Survival improvements of marine mammals in zoological institutions mirror historical advances in human longevity

“…The most significant improvements in demographic metrics for the four marine mammal species occurred in the 1990s onwards, potentially linked to the implementation of advanced veterinary [ 43 , 44 ], environmental [ 45 ], nutritional [ 46 , 47 ] and enrichment [ 48 ] measures ( figure 3 ). Importantly, the voluntary cooperation of animals in routine examinations, achieved through training and positive reinforcement [ 49 ], has reduced the need for anaesthesia and facilitated regular health monitoring.…”

Ask an Acoustician: Sam H. Ridgway

“…Thus, medical knowledge served science. In 1965, I published a safe and humane method of dolphin anesthesia (Ridgway, 1965;McCormick and Ridgway, 2018). On the recommendation of W. E. (Bill) Schevill of Woods Hole, MA, E. G. Wever of Princeton, NJ (see acousticstoday.…”