Guidelines for recognition, assessment and treatment of pain

02 April 2015
19 mins read
Volume 6 · Issue 3

The ability to experience pain is universally shared by all mammals, including companion animals, and as members of the veterinary healthcare team it is our moral and ethical duty to mitigate this suffering to the best of our ability. This begins by evaluating for pain at every patient contact. However, and despite advances in the recognition and treatment of pain, there remains a gap between its occurrence and its successful management; the inability to accurately diagnose pain and limitations in, and/or comfort with, the analgesic modalities available remain root causes. Both would benefit from the development, broad dissemination, and adoption of pain assessment and management guidelines.

This article presents selected sections of the WSAVA Guidelines focusing on pain assessment. The full guidelines can be found on the WSAVA website (www.wsava.org). Additional web-based resources are also available as www.wsava.org including a webcast on pain assessment from the GPC Pre-Congress Day at the 2013 WSAVA World Congress.

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