SAI’s goal in publishing this manual is to help you put together the optimal system to achieve your primary research goals and establish a foundation of core components that will allow you the most flexibility in the future. One way to do this is to provide you with the knowledge and components necessary to put together your own system, giving you complete control over the details. Our goal here is not to convince you to buy a certain product, but to help you make the right choices based on a deeper understanding. Another approach is to have SAI put together a system that will meet your specific objectives, saving you the time and trouble. It is our goal to provide you with both options allowing you the flexibility to choose what i’s best for you.

To this end we have subdivided this publication in three Sections. The first section is the comprehensive products section from which the systems are derived, providing you with all of the options available to put together the systems you require, whomever the manufacturer. The “Systems” section is provided to illustrate representative, proven systems that are in use at numerous international laboratories as this goes to print. The “General Infusion Principles” section is intended to help you understand why certain components might be chosen over others, depending on your research goals. 

Much of the information in Section 3 may be considered common sense, especially to those of you who already possess considerable experience with infusion systems. Our intention is to present as many details as possible, in support of those recently introduced to infusion, and hopefully to provide some new insights for the experts. Primarily, we have focused on the main issues infusion developers will be faced with and added some details that often go unaddressed. We also intend to produce a manual that is easy to navigate to find what you need. With this in mind, whenever possible, we have employed a species legend 
to help guide readers to the components that are best suited for that species. Many of the components can be used in multiple species depending on your study requirements and in those instances, multiple symbols appear.

Of course, it will be impossible to include everything relevant in the pages that follow, especially since input from you, the end user, is critical in all instances. We welcome your calls directly to our infusion specialists to discuss your specific needs. We look forward to becoming a valuable tool in your toolbox by providing the resources and knowledge required for successful infusion studies. This manual will evolve through future expanded editions as new technology and applications emerge. Please provide us with your feedback and let us know what you would like to see included in these future publications.

Please note that we have purposefully excluded surgical procedures and techniques from this manual. Although a discussion of surgical tools and practices would be fitting and appropriate, they are available through other sources and beyond our scope at this time. SAI however, does have skilled surgeons on staff that would be happy to assist you in these areas on a person–to-person basis, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.