Studies were primarily related to the assessment of pain in relation to surgical procedures , and no clear distinction was made concerning the onset of acute and chronic pain .
The metrics used within the tools appeared to focus primarily on the sensory aspect of pain , with no study clearly discriminating between the sensory and affective components of pain .
Objectives The objectives were to review systematic ally the range of assessment tools used in cats to detect the behavioural expression of pain and the evidence of their quality ; and to examine behavioural metrics ( considering both the sensory and affective domains ) used to assess pain .
A prospective multi-centre clinical trial to compare buprenorphine and butorphanol for postoperative analgesia in cats
One hundred and fifty-three cats undergoing surgery in seven veterinary practice s in Great Britain were studied . They were r and omly allocated to receive either 10–20 μg/kg buprenorphine or 0.4 mg/kg butorphanol with acepromazine before anaesthesia with propofol , Saffan or thiopentone and isoflurane or halothane . Routine monitoring was undertaken . Pain and sedation were assessed blind using a four point ( 0–3 ) simple descriptive scale ( SDS ) at 1 , 2 , 4 , 8 and 24 h. Pain and sedation data were compared using non-parametric statistical tests and continuous data using t tests or analysis of variance ( ANOVA ) . Anaesthesia and surgery were uneventful , and cardiorespiratory data were within normal limits . After surgery , overall , more cats had pain score 0 after buprenorphine and more had pain score 3 after butorphanol ( P=0.0465 ) . At individual time points , more cats had lower pain scores  after buprenorphine at 2 ( P=0.040 ) and 24 ( P=0.036 ) h. At 24 h 83 % after buprenorphine and 63 % after butorphanol  had pain score 0 ( P<0.04 ) . Buprenorphine provided better and longer lasting postoperative analgesia  than butorphanol
Studies were primarily related to the assessment of pain in relation to surgical procedures , and no clear distinction was made concerning the onset of acute and chronic pain .
The metrics used within the tools appeared to focus primarily on the sensory aspect of pain , with no study clearly discriminating between the sensory and affective components of pain .
Objectives The objectives were to review systematic ally the range of assessment tools used in cats to detect the behavioural expression of pain and the evidence of their quality ; and to examine behavioural metrics ( considering both the sensory and affective domains ) used to assess pain .