Royal Joseph M, Settle Timothy L, Bodo Michael, Lombardini Eric, Kent Michael L, Upp Justin, Rothwell Stephen W
Center for Laboratory Animal Medicine, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci. 2013;52(3):265-76.
Management of pain in research swine used for studies involving painful procedures is a considerable challenge. Here we assessed whether a regional anesthesia method is effective for pain control of hindlimb injuries in pigs used for research in bone fracture healing. For this randomized controlled study, we administered regional anesthesia before an experimental femoral injury was produced. Using ultrasound guidance, we placed sterile infusion catheters near the sciatic and femoral nerves and administered local anesthetic (bupivacaine) for the first 24 h after surgery. We evaluated various behavioral and physiologic parameters to test the hypothesis that this regional anesthesia would provide superior analgesia compared with systemic analgesia alone. We also collected blood samples to evaluate serum levels of cortisol and fentanyl postoperatively. At the end of the study period, we collected sciatic and femoral nerves and surrounding soft tissues for histopathologic evaluation. Treatment pigs had lower subjective pain scores than did control animals. Control pigs had a longer time to first feed consumption and required additional analgesia earlier in the postoperative period than did treatment pigs. Ultrasound-guided regional anesthesia is a viable and effective adjunct to systemic analgesics for providing pain control in swine with experimental femoral fractures.
对用于涉及疼痛性操作研究的实验用猪进行疼痛管理是一项颇具挑战的任务。在此，我们评估了一种区域麻醉方法对于用于骨折愈合研究的猪后肢损伤疼痛控制是否有效。在这项随机对照研究中，我们在造成实验性股骨损伤之前实施区域麻醉。利用超声引导，我们将无菌输液导管置于坐骨神经和股神经附近，并在术后头24小时给予局部麻醉剂（布比卡因）。我们评估了各种行为和生理参数，以检验这一区域麻醉与单纯全身镇痛相比能提供更优镇痛效果的假设。我们还采集了血样以评估术后皮质醇和芬太尼的血清水平。在研究期结束时，我们采集了坐骨神经和股神经以及周围软组织用于组织病理学评估。治疗组猪的主观疼痛评分低于对照组动物。与治疗组猪相比，对照猪首次进食的时间更长，且在术后早期需要额外的镇痛。超声引导下的区域麻醉是一种可行且有效的辅助全身镇痛药的方法，可为患有实验性股骨骨折的猪提供疼痛控制。
