Primate Model for Long-Term Study of Intraventricularly or Intrathecally Administered Drugs and Intracranial Pressure

Meaningful pharmacokinetic investigations require animal systems which approximate the human situation. This report describes a primate model in which silicone catheters are placed into the fourth ventricle and the spinal subarachnoid space and connected to subcutaneous cerebrospinal fluid reservoirs. This model permits sterile access to ventricular cerebrospinal fluid without tissue damage, provides mixing of injected drugs with lateral ventricular cerebrospinal fluid, enables spinoventricular perfusion, and permits ventricular cerebrospinal fluid sampling over extended periods in unanesthetized rhesus monkeys. This animal system may provide intraventricular pressure recordings and pharmacokinetic data similar to that obtained in man.