• Tania E Perez, Tamara L Grubb, Stephen A Greene, Shona Meyer, Nicole Valdez, Janel Bingman, and Raelynn Farnsworth.
• Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, USA.
• J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 2013 Mar 1;242(5):631-42.

ObjectiveTo determine the intraoperative and postoperative analgesic efficacy of intratesticular or epidural injection of analgesics for dogs undergoing castration.DesignRandomized controlled trial.Animals51 healthy male dogs.ProceduresDogs were assigned to a control group that received analgesics systemically (hydromorphone [0.1 mg/kg {0.045 mg/lb}, IM] and carprofen [4.4 mg/kg {2.0 mg/lb}, SC]; n = 17), an epidural treatment group that received analgesics systemically and morphine (0.1 mg/kg) epidurally (17), or an intratesticular treatment group that received analgesics systemically and bupivacaine (0.5 mg/kg [0.23 mg/lb]/testis) intratesticularly (17). Dogs were anesthetized and castrated by veterinary students. Responses to surgical stimulation were monitored intraoperatively, and treatments were administered as required. Pain scores were assigned via a modified Glasgow composite pain scale after surgery. Serum cortisol concentrations were determined at various times. Rescue analgesia included fentanyl (intraoperatively) and hydromorphone (postoperatively).ResultsCompared with control dogs, dogs in the intratesticular bupivacaine and epidural morphine treatment groups received significantly fewer doses of fentanyl intraoperatively (11, 1, and 5 doses, respectively) and hydromorphone postoperatively (14, 7, and 3 doses, respectively) and had significantly lower postoperative pain scores (mean ± SEM score at first assessment time, 71 ± 0.5, 4.8 ± 0.2, and 4.5 ± 0.4, respectively). At 15 minutes after removal of the testes, serum cortisol concentrations were significantly higher than they were immediately prior to surgery for all groups and values for the intratesticular bupivacaine treatment group were significantly lower versus the other 2 groups.Conclusions And Clinical RelevanceIntratesticular or epidural injection of analgesics improved perioperative analgesia for dogs undergoing castration.

16 keywords...

hide…