Pain Assessment Flashcards
What is pain?
An upleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage
Individual experience
NOT THE SAME AS NOCICEPTION
Noxious Stimulus
A stimulus that is damaging or threatens damage to normal tissues
Nociception
The neural process of encoding noxious stimuli
Nociceptive Pain
Pain from activation of nociceptors
Central sensitisation
Increased responsiveness of nociceptive neurons in the central nervous system to their normal or subthreshold afferent input
Somatic Pain
Pain experienced from skin, muscle, bone damage/disease
Visceral pain
Pain experienced because of organ pain (abdominal or thoracic)
Neuropathic Pain
Pain caused by a lesion or disease of the somatosensory nervous system
In contrast to nociceptive pain
Wind-up
Wind-up is a frequency-dependent increase in the excitability of spinal cord neurones, evoked by electrical stimulation of afferent C-fibres
Adverse effects of unrelieved pain
Clinical Signs of Pain
○ Tachycardia
○ Tachypnoea
○ Hypertension or hypotension
○ Cardiac arrhythmias
○ Pale mucous membranes
○ Hypersalivation
○ Mydriasis (dilated pupils)
○ Sweating trembling
○ Poor body or coat condition
○ Changes in “stress hormones”
○ Cortisol, glucose, insulin, adrenaline, β-endorphins
○ Unreliable and non-specific
○ Increased by disease, fear, stress, handling, anaesthesia etc
How do prey species respond to pain?
Often don’t display pain behaviour
Survival response
What are the effects of unresolved pain on the neuroendocrine system?
- Hypoglycaemia
- Weight loss
*delayed wound healing - Impaired immune system
What are the effects of unresolved pain on the cardiovascular system?
Fatigue
Immobility
Weakness
What are the effects of unresolved pain on the respiratory system?
Decreased lung volume leading to atelectasis and hypoxaemia
What are the effects of unresolved pain on the GIT and urinary system?
Decreased bowel motility leading to constipation
(Ileus)
Anorexia
Urinary retention
