Correlation of Helsinki chronic pain index with kinetic and goniometric evaluation in dogs with hip dysplasia submitted to joint surgery for pain relief

Abstract

Chronic pain refers to the presence of pain for a long period of time, beyond the one commonly experienced when somatic or visceral tissues are damaged. Chronic articular degenerative illnesses are changes characterized by chronic and painful alterations. Diverse scales were developed to validate acute pain in dogs, horses and recently, in cats, and questionnaires that assess quality of life were made with the goal of evaluating chronic pain in dogs. This study aims to validate Helsinki´s Portuguese chronic pain index in dogs, besides establishing its correlation between force platform in dogs with hip dysplasia, as those patients could not be treated appropriately due to the absence of an effective confirmed method that can quantify and identify chronic pain in that specie. The questionnaire was translated from Finnish to Portuguese by two fluent translators of those languages and those versions were revised, compared and be turned into one unique version that was translated once again from Portuguese to Finnish. Reliability will be validated through test-retest, and internal consistency through Alfa de Cronbach coefficient, questionnaire sensitivity will be validated by two groups of animals treated with carprofen (n=16), at dose rate of 4 mg/kg, once a day, during 30 days or placebo (n=16). The questionnaire will be fulfilled by owners of 32 animals with chronic pain, which in this study will be those carriers of hip dysplasia and for 16 owners of healthy dogs. Four weeks before the beginning of validations (week -4) every owner will be oriented not to administrate any medicine such as anti-inflammatory, corticoid or condroprotector. The evaluator will have no knowledge about group distribution. Radiographies will be carried out, animals will be filmed, leaded in the pressure-sensitive walkway to analyze objectively locomotion and the questionnaire would be answered by owners five times: twice in basal moment (-2, 0 week), twice during treatment (2 and 4 weeks) and once after 2 weeks of treatment ending (6 weeks). (AU)