Anesthesiology & Pain Management

Preoperative epidural injection of local anesthetics and opioids provides excellent preemptive, multimodal intraoperative analgesia; reduces the concentration of volatile anesthetic required to maintain surgical anesthesia; and provides analgesia extending into the recovery period.

Clarification regarding an article from the June 2009 issue of Veterinary Medicine.

From a pain practitioner's standpoint, it's much better for a practice to provide more service to existing clients than try to compete for new ones when patients die before their time. That was one of two key take-home points Robert M. Stein, DVM, Dipl. AAPM, pain specialist and president of the International Veterinary Academy of Pain Management (IVAPM), offered CVC Kansas City attendees Sunday morning during his presentation, "A day in the life of a pain practitioner," part of the IVAPM Symposium at CVC Kansas City. Stein practices in suburban Buffalo, N.Y.

IVAPM issues exam in conjunction with CVC in Kansas City.

Rabbits and rodents are popular pets in urban society because they require little space, are relatively easy to care for, and are a species with which the client can develop a bond.

Blocking the transmission of painful signals via nerve fibers is one of the most effective ways of managing pain.

In order to discuss the application of veterinary rehabilitation in pain management, it is important to understand what veterinary rehabilitation is.

Cats are notorious for concealing pain.

Currently available sedative analgesic agents have opened up a wonderful world of opportunity to practice with intelligent compassion: to work smarter, not harder when managing patients that resent a variety of necessary procedures.

The use of arterial blood gas analysis has become commonplace in many veterinary practices for the assessment both qualitative and quantitative assessment of metabolic and respiratory acid-base problems, including the interrelationships between ventilation, oxygenation, and metabolic conditions.

Analgesics administered by intermittent bolus create broad swings in drug plasma levels.

Until recently, there was little scientific basis for interpreting response to various techniques of diagnostic analgesia of the digit.

The major barrier to good pain management is the mythology that has persisted around animal pain behavior, physiology of pain, owner psychology and analgesic drugs and techniques.

Awareness of the possibility of pain is the first step to its alleviation and prevention.

The biggest problem to overcome before treating pain in veterinary medicine is properly identifying the pain.

It can be estimated that more than half of tumor-bearing pets suffer cancer-related pain.

Anyone who has suffered from tension headaches, tennis elbow or recurrent back pain has experienced some form of myofascial pain.

Postoperative care of the neurosurgical patient is contingent upon a team approach that begins with patient evaluation, pain management, bladder assessment and supportive care.

The framework of effective pain management systems rests solidly on the foundation of recognition/assessment, pre-emption, and using multiple modalities.

There are no laboratory or imaging tests available that can confirm the presence of trigger points or myofascial pain disorders, although new studies into the identification of taut bands with magnetic resonance elastography are promising.

Trauma is perhaps the most instantly recognizable cause of acute pain in man and animals and is a common cause of critical illness.

The neuro-anatomic, physiologic, and molecular basis of nociception is a rapidly evolving field of study.

Many modalities may be employed to minimize both acute and chronic pain, but it is clear that non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs will likely remain one of the most commonly used tools in veterinary medicine.

As their name implies, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are used in the treatment of inflammatory conditions, which are characterized by redness, swelling, heat, pain, and loss of function.

"Acute abdomen" is widely understood by clinicians as a potentially serious syndrome that is typically accompanied by spontaneous and evoked behavioral signs of pain.

Pain ranges in prevalence from 15 to 90% among human cancer patients, with an incidence and severity that parallels disease progression.

There are a number of special considerations that must be addressed when treating equine patients with myofascial pain and dysfunction.

Pain can be protective, but through the stress response it may also contribute significantly to patient morbidity and even mortality.

Clients tend to come into our exam rooms with many different ideas on how to treat their pet's arthritis, both the pain and as a disease.

For many years, chronic pain in dogs and cats was either tolerated as a necessary evil, or was considered a reason for euthanasia to relieve the pet from unnecessary suffering.