Anyone who has performed tail vein injections knows the challenge. The animal needs to be secure, the tail needs to be accessible, and the whole procedure needs to happen quickly enough to minimize stress for both the rat and the technician.
There are real advantages to performing the technique on non-anesthetized animals — clearer vein access through targeted tail warming (rather than the systemic hypotension that comes with isoflurane), no anesthetic confound on your data, faster throughput, and one less risk to the animal. But it only works with the right restrainer.
Traditional nose cone restrainers get the job done, but they come with a real risk of asphyxiation if the animal is not positioned just right.
That’s the problem the Rvein™ was built to solve.
The Rvein™ is Medilumine’s new restrainer for rat tail vein injections, designed as the direct companion to our Mvein™ for mice. Instead of a nose cone, it uses a sliding head mount that keeps the rat securely in place while allowing the head to move naturally: no breath restriction, no repositioning mid-procedure.
Loading is straightforward. The rat goes in head-first or tail-first, the head mount slides into position, and the unit rotates 90 degrees to bring the lateral tail vein to the top. The adjustable design covers rats from 250 to 450 g without any inserts or adapters, so there’s no swapping parts between animals.
The rectangular profile is also worth noting for teams running xenograft studies — it handles rats with flank tumors without the awkward fit you get with conical restrainers. And for labs that use the same animals for multiple procedures, the Rvein™ works equally well for blood sampling and blood pressure monitoring.
The Rvein™ is available in three sizes to cover the full range of laboratory rats. The Rvein-S™ (150–250 g) is designed for adult females and young males. The standard Rvein™ (250–450 g) covers the majority of adult males used in preclinical research. And the Rvein-L™ (450–650 g) accommodates larger males, aged animals, and diet-induced obesity models. All three sizes use the same sliding head mount design — no inserts, no adapters, no parts to swap between animals.
Cleaning is simple: wipe down with 70% ethanol or isopropanol and allow to air dry. Do not autoclave.
Learn more and order at : Learn more and order at medilumine.com/rvein
Anyone who has performed tail vein injections knows the challenge. The animal needs to be secure, the tail needs to be accessible, and the whole
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