Pain Lecture Flashcards
What is pain?
A sensation
Unpleasant, aversive
Complex, multifactorial
Emotional, subjective, individual
Associated to damages/possibility of damages to body
Previous experiences: stress, fear, memory: modify pain perception
Subsequent painful episodes can be felt as more painful
Pain modifies the animal behavior and its expression
What is the pain pathway?
transduction, transmission,
modulation and perception
Describe the transduction pathway
the nociceptors, specialized
sensory receptors, are responsible for detecting the noxious stimulus and transforming it
into electric signal (action potential) that will be conducted to the central nervous system.
What are the free nerve endings involved in nociception?
primary afferent Aδ and C fibers
distributed
throughout the body, somatic and visceral (skin, viscera, muscles, joints, meninges)
WHat are types of noxious stimuli?
mechanical, thermal or chemical stimuli.
Describe transmission
transmit information from the periphery to the dorsal horn of the grey matter of
the spinal cord
What are A-beta fibers?
Primary afferent fibers that carry non-noxious stimuli
The primary afferent fibers involved in transmission are also known as? And what are these?
first order neurons
Aδ and C fibers, Aβ fibers
Aδ NT? and characteristics?
NT: glutamate
lightly myelinated and smaller diameter, and hence conduct more slowly than Aβ fibers
Strong, rapid, sharp, localized, acute pain (initial reflex response to acute pain)
Moderately rapid signal conduction: 5-30 meters/sec.
Neospinothalamic pathway
C NT? and characteristics?
Neurotransmitter :glutamate & substance P
Unmyelinated
Slow, burning, diffuse, dull pain
Slow conduction: 0.5-2 meters/sec.
Paleospinothalamic pathway
Polymodal: responding to thermal, chemical and chemical stimuli
Aβ Fibers NT & characteristics?
NT: GABA
Highly myelinated –> rapid signal transduction
Touch, vibration, pressure, non-noxious stimuli, position in space
Activated with inflammation
Allodynia and central/peripheral sensitization
Rapid signal conduction: 50-120 meters/sec.
Describe modulation.
Synapse in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord of A-delta and C fibers with secondary afferent neurons
Complex interactions occur
determine activity of the secondary afferent neurons
Modulation of pain will cause what via the release of NT?
The modulation implies the amplification or inhibition of the transmission of noxious signals via the release of many neurotransmitters.
Excitatory NT
Glutamate and substance P
Modulating NT
NE, opioids, and serotonin
Inhibitory NT
GABA and glycine
Describe perception
This is where the nociception is perceived as pain as the cortical interpretation of the
noxious stimulus happens in the cerebral cortex
T/F Pain cannot be perceived by animals
while they are unconscious.
True
Whats important about nociception and GA?
it is important to understand that the nociceptive
mechanisms that lead to its perception are still active unless they are specifically blocked at
least at one of the steps previously mentioned. Noxious stimuli during anesthesia can
dramatically increase the pain perceived when an animal regains consciousness
The cerebral cortex is also a
central analgesia system
The release of what during perception helps to decrease or abolish pain?
enkephalins, endorphins,
serotonin
What is nociceptive pain?
- occurs when peripheral neural receptors are activated by noxious stimuli (trauma, surgical incision, infection, heat, or cold).
-Physiological/adaptive/biological purpose: Alters animal’s behavior: Protection - Abrupt, temporary, predictable:
Intensity/duration depends on insult’s severity - Associated to little or no tissue damage and does not always necessitate treatment
Nociceptive pain stops when?
External stimulus is removed Inflammation has resolved Healing is achieved
What is inflammatory pain?
- results gradually from activation of the immune system in response to injury/infection.
- Chemical changes in tissues around the nociceptors facilitate
(lower threshold), or directly cause, nociceptor activation (adjacent nociceptors exposed to the same chemical changes)
Describe acute inflammatory pain.
Rapid onset, severity of injury dictate intensity/length of painful process
Generally reversible if proper healing occurs
Examples of acute inflammatory pain?
Postoperative pain (surgical wound/surrounding tissues until healed)
Describe chronic inflammatory pain
- Beyond expected duration of disease process/injury healing (severe/non-healing/non-treated condition)
- Has no biological purpose, no clear end-point
- Potentially resistance to conventional analgesic therapy
- Affects physical/emotional wellbeing & can lead to/be maladaptive
Example of chronic inflammatory pain?
Arthritis, chronic otitis, gingivitis, chronic pancreatitis, long-term dermatologic conditions, etc.
Neuropathic pain is due to:
is initiated or caused by an important primary lesion or
dysfunction within the nervous system (peripheral (nerve root injury, plexus avulsion) or
central), and accompanied by persistent painful stimuli
Describe how chronic pain can lead to neuropathic pain.
- if after the initial injury or disease, there is continual nociceptive activation
and eventually changes in the functioning nervous system, leading to the development of a
neuropathic component. - Ex: Repetitive chewing, biting, licking, scratching, spontaneous crying, adverse reaction to touch, no visible pathology
- Ex: Diabetic neuropathy, nerve transection (post amputation pain), nerve root tumor, brachial plexus avulsion, spinal cord injury, meningitis, polyneuropathy
Neuropathic pain and underlying conditions must be..?
treated
What is dysfunctional (functional) pain?
- develops when the tissue damages produce a severe
inflammation and highly activates the nociceptors, inducing an excitement of the neurons. - Present beyond expected time of inflammation/healing
- Radiates beyond original injury boundaries
Why is dysfunctional pain hard to treat?
Does not respond well to NSAID/opioids
What causes amplification of dysfuctional pain?
Changes at molecular/cellular level amplify pain
Increased sensibility of pain pathway
Dysfunctional pain is characterized by:
central hyperalgesia and allodynia
What is causes peripheral sensitization?
Tissue damage
- Inflammatory mediators
- Stimulate nociceptors
Inflammation
- Reduce the activation threshold of nociceptors
- Primary hyperalgesia
a. Secondary hyperalgesia
b. Allodynia
Increased sensitivity around a lesion site will lead to:
hyperalgesia and allodynia
What causes central sensitization?
AKA dorsal horn windup
Pre-synaptically
- Increased transmitter release
Post-synaptically
- Increased response to transmitter
A-β fibers
- Modification/recruitment to transmit painful influx
Central Sensitization is due to:
Constant noxious input from periphery to spinal cord and it leads to increased pain facilitation/decreased pain inhbition
What is hyperalgesia?
exaggerated response to a noxious stimulus.
Examples of hyperalgesia?
- The inflammation post-injury decreases the pain threshold.
- An example of hyperalgesia is
exaggerated pain in response to a slightly painful procedure such as a skin pinch.
What is primary hyperalgesia?
Pain felt following surgery in the area of the incision and in the surrounding swelling/bruising
What is secondary hyperalgesia?
Increased sensitivity to claw trimming in the hind limb of a dog with hip osteoarthritis
What is allodynia?
Pain caused by a non-painful stimulus (touch, vibration, pressure,
proprioception).
Allodynia is caused by the recruitment of?
the recruitment of Aβ nerve fibers
(touch, vibration, pressure)
Examples of allodynia?
pain in response to light touch, as demonstrated by the decreased tactile threshold observed in approximately 30% of cats with.
Severe sunburn
Why is pain assessment hard in Vetmed?
Non-verbal patients
Should you assess pain everytime? WHy?
Daily assessment of the level of pain in any patient
Including a pain score on every physical exam sheet/procedure
Pain must be assessed in every patient, because when recognized and successfully treated, it lowers the incidence of chronic refractory pain, accelerate the recovery, reduce the incidence of patient readmission, and improves the owner satisfaction.
T/f Pain is a vital sign like temperature, heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure
True!!
How do you objectively measure pain?
- Quantify pain
a. Specific numbers obtained to compare pain presence/level
b. Decrease impact of evaluator’s emotion/experience/knowledge - Physiological indicators
- Biochemical markers
- Measurement of the animal’s activity
- Nociceptive thresholds determination
What are some physiologic indicators of pain?
- heart rate, respiratory rate and arterial blood
pressure. - BUT these are non-specific to pain:
a. Stress, anxiety, fear, comorbidity, hypotension (i.e. reflex tachycardia), hypovolemia, drugs given
Physiologic indicators of pain are complementary of other methods like?
Follow trend on the patient
Identify an acute painful stimulus
Evaluate the response to analgesic treatment
What are some biologic markers of pain?
Epinephrine, norepinephrine, endorphins, cortisol
In relation with Pain scoring system/markers
Expensive assays, invasive methods, no rapid results
Application are actually restrained to research use