| dc.description.abstract | The assessment of pain is important to estimate the wellbeing of horses, especially induced by common veterinary procedures such as castration. Various existing pain assessment methods (e.g. the Post Abdominal Surgery Pain Assessment Scale (PASPAS), the Composite Pain Scale (CPS) and the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS)) have their limitations and therefore it makes them less useful in practice. Pain assessment methods based on facial expression however, seem to have some beneficial properties that surpass the limitation of other types of pain assessment. The purpose of this study is to assess the usefulness of the EQUUS-FAP in the assessment of pain following the castration of horses and to compare it to the Horse Grimace Scale.
Seven stallions of different breeds (1-6 years), admitted for castration to the Equine Health Department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht between 01/03/2015 and 01/05/2015, were used for this study. The control groups consisted of different breeds (4-14 years) admitted to the Equine Health Department of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Utrecht for either a special farrier treatment (7 geldings), a CT scan or an MRI (1 gelding and 2 mares).
Two pain scales were used to assess the amount of pain: Equine Utrecht University Scale for Facial Assessment of Pain (EQUUS-FAP) and the Horse Grimace Scale (HGS). The scoring of EQUUS-FAP and HGS were performed independently at the same time by two observers, who were not blinded. The scoring of the EQUUS-FAP and HGS was performed at several predetermined time points: a baseline score was performed at the day of arrival, and at the morning of the operation. The next assessments were 4 and 8 hours after surgery and followed for two more days with assessments in the morning and the late afternoon. This whole procedure was performed to monitor the pain and to register the changes in pain over time. The farrier-control group of horses, were assessed only once for both the EQUUS-FAP and HGS, following the same protocol as the castration patients. The control group of CT and MRI patients, used to investigate the impact of general anaesthesia on the EQUUS-FAP and HGS, was assessed for the EQUUS-FAP and HGS on the day of arrival and/or just before the performing the CT or MRI, so before starting of premedication and anaesthesia. Afterwards the pain assessments were conducted 2, 4, 5, and 6 hours after anaesthesia.
Overall the pain assessment from both the EQUUS-FAP as well as the HGS, gave the comparable low scores after castration. Most likely this can be explained by a good anaesthetic and analgesic protocol as is discussed extensively. It was encouraging that both scales clearly picked up the two animals with post operative painful complications. Considering this, the EQUUS-FAP seems to be useful in the assessment of pain following castration in horses. However, the low number of patients and controls; the caused a impossibility to calculate statistic support. Future extension of the research is advised. | |
