The visually evoked potential (VEP) is an electrical signal generated by the occipital cortex in response to light stimulation of the retina. The clinical importance of the VEP consists in the diagnosis of optic nerve diseases and others ocular diseases. For experimental studies of VEP in experimental animals anesthesia is frequently required. Our study sought VEP changes depending on the type and depth of anesthesia.

Methods: this study evaluated VEPs in 20 Wistar rats under two anesthetics. Ten rats were anesthetized with sevoflurane and ten rats with chloral hydrate.

Results: The amplitudes, latencies and morphology of the VEP varied with the depth of anesthesia. The latency of VEP increases with the depth of anesthesia and the amplitude of the waves becomes more positive once the anesthesia decreases under sevoflurane and more negative under chloral hydrate. The variability of VEP was different under the two anesthetics with greater peak latencies under sevoflurane than under chloral hydrate at the same depth of anesthesia.

In conclusion: it is important to know the influence of the anesthetic and the depth of anesthesia over VEPS, because they may constitute a confounding factor in studying VEP in different diseases of optic nerve or eyeball.