ANALGESIA FOR EQUINE VISCERAL PAIN

摘要

Colic (along with lameness) is one of the most clinically and economically important medical problems facing horses and their owners. Pain is a critical component of colic, regardless of cause, and its alleviation is often critical to a successful outcome. A limited number of analgesics are available for use in horses and many of these options are associated with significant untoward effects. This talk will focus on methods used for recognition of visceral pain in horses and available options for analgesic drug use.In order to be useful, a pain scoring system should include clearly defined assessment criteria, be suitable for all observers, be simple and quick to use, be sensitive, have identified strengths and weaknesses, and be validated. Possible deficiencies include bias, inter- and intra-observer variability. A lack of agreement between observers is one of the flaws of simple scoring systems such as the visual analog scale (VAS), in which pain is scored on a numerical scale, when used in humans.