Intra-articular botulinum toxin as an adjunctive therapy for pain management in dogs with hip dysplasia

Abstract

The aim of this study is to evaluate the analgesic effects of botulinum toxin as an adjunct in the management of chronic pain in dogs. Sixteen dogs will be evaluated, with radiographic diagnosis of hip dysplasia. After the confirmation of hip dysplasia, the conventional analgesic treatment will be started with carprofen during 15 days, and chondroitin for up to 24 weeks. Five days after, in a randomized double blinded study, the dogs will be distributed into 2 groups: TXB (n=8): intra-articular (IA) injection of 25 U (0.5mL) botulinum toxin; Control (n=8): IA injection of 0.5mL saline solution. The degree of pain, lameness and articular mobility will be scored before and at 2, 4, 8, 12, 16, 20 and 24 weeks post-injection. Radiographs will be taken at the beginning and at 12 and 24 weeks post-injection. The owners will respond a questionnaire about their dog's condition during the study and compared to prior the intra-articular injection of TXB. The data will be analyzed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Kruskal-Wallis test for compare differences between treatments at each time point. The Friedman test for repeated measures followed by post-hoc Dunn's test will be employed for compare differences in time for each treatment (p<0.05). (AU)