PAIN ASSESSMENT AND TREATMENT IN VETERINARY MEDICINE

Coordinator: Doughlas Regalin

Pain in animals can be defined as an adverse sensory and emotional experience, a perception that triggers a protective motor response that often results in escape learning and changes in species-specific behavior patterns. The nature of pain is equally complex in humans and animals, although all aspects of its experience and expression are not identical. The capacity of animals to suffer as sentient beings is well established and is enshrined in law in many countries. In order to establish adequate analgesic treatment, pain must first be identified and quantified using reliable methods. In investigating the presence of pain, different methods have been developed using physiological and behavioral parameters, although these are often subtle factors. Among the methods used to recognize pain, the multidimensional scale stands out, characterized by the investigation of physiological indicators and behavioral tests in order to obtain an animal's responses to harmful stimuli. The purpose of modern anesthesia is to ensure that patients undergoing surgery are maintained during the surgical procedure and still awaken from anesthesia without showing signs of nociception/pain and thus maintain this control throughout the postoperative period. Therefore, the administration of analgesics to the patient before the surgical stimulus can result in a state of comfort for the patient in the postoperative period. Thus, several analgesia protocols for surgical procedures in veterinary medicine have been developed in recent years, from protocols containing local blocks or association with analgesic drugs used in total intravenous anesthesia to continuous infusion to further reduce the pain process. Thus, studies with pain assessment and performance of analgesia through new clinical analgesia protocols are developed at this institution with the aim of clarifying doubts and filling these gaps in knowledge in the area of ​​veterinary anesthesiology.