Surgerized animals play a crucial role in preclinical research aimed at drug and medical device discovery into treatments for humans. When implementing new in-house surgical models to perform preclinical in-vivo studies, the models are not always straightforward and their implementation often comes with many challenges. Most surgical animal models have been executed by other institutions, however too often they have not been published and if they are, the methods are poorly described. Additionally, failures and mistakes during model development are typically not reported. This makes it difficult, even for experienced surgeons to read a published paper and incorporate the model. Furthermore, many scientists, especially when it comes to rodent surgical models, do not have a strong enough surgical background to make a case for a well-described surgical model. This presentation describes the process, validation and cost of implementing in-house surgical animal models.     

Learning objectives:

• Participants will learn steps required for successful implementation of in-house surgical animal model. 
• Participants will learn the benefits and disadvantages of developing in-house surgical models versus outsourcing the work.