Ellen Yvette, Flecknell Paul, Leach Matt
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Queensland, Australia.
Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Newcastle, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2016 Sep 1;11(9):e0161941. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161941. eCollection 2016.
To manage pain effectively in people and animals, it is essential to recognise when pain is present and to assess its intensity. Currently there is very little information regarding the signs of post-surgical pain or its management in guinea pigs. Studies from other rodent species indicate that behaviour-based scoring systems can be used successfully to detect pain and evaluate analgesic efficacy. This preliminary study aimed to establish whether behaviour-based scoring systems could be developed to assess post-surgical pain in guinea pigs. This prospective, randomised, placebo-controlled study used 16 guinea pigs, and evaluated changes in behaviour following either anaesthesia alone or anaesthesia and orchiectomy. Behaviour was assessed using a combination of manual and automated scoring of remotely obtained video footage. A small number of behaviours were identified that appeared to have high specificity for pain caused by orchiectomy. However, the behaviours were displayed infrequently. The most common was a change in posture from standing to recumbency, sometimes with one hind leg extended either to the side or behind the body. A composite behaviour score incorporating these abnormal behaviours differentiated between the effects of surgery and anaesthesia alone (p<0.0001), and between animals that received analgesia post-operatively compared to an untreated group (p<0.0001). Although behavioural changes occurred in these guinea pigs after orchiectomy, the changes were relatively subtle and the individual specific pain-related behaviours occurred infrequently. However, it may prove possible to develop a behaviour-based scoring system for routine use in this species using a combination of pain-related behaviours.
为了有效管理人和动物的疼痛，识别疼痛何时存在并评估其强度至关重要。目前，关于豚鼠术后疼痛的迹象或其管理的信息非常少。来自其他啮齿动物物种的研究表明，基于行为的评分系统可以成功用于检测疼痛和评估镇痛效果。这项初步研究旨在确定是否可以开发基于行为的评分系统来评估豚鼠的术后疼痛。这项前瞻性、随机、安慰剂对照研究使用了16只豚鼠，评估了单独麻醉或麻醉加睾丸切除术后行为的变化。行为通过对远程获取的视频片段进行手动和自动评分相结合的方式进行评估。确定了一些似乎对睾丸切除引起的疼痛具有高度特异性的行为。然而，这些行为很少出现。最常见的是姿势从站立变为侧卧，有时一条后腿向身体一侧或后方伸展。纳入这些异常行为的综合行为评分区分了手术和单独麻醉的效果（p<0.0001），以及术后接受镇痛的动物与未治疗组之间的差异（p<0.0001）。虽然这些豚鼠在睾丸切除术后出现了行为变化，但变化相对细微，且个体特定的疼痛相关行为很少发生。然而，使用与疼痛相关的行为组合为该物种开发一种常规使用的基于行为的评分系统可能是可行的。
