General Practice
General Practice
“We see many pet parents in our practice that live in a “yellow light” zone. This means they are not immediately saying no (red light) when it comes to diagnostics and treatment, but they are also not easily saying yes (green light) either. PainTrace is an amazing “bridge” to providing the best care for pets when it comes to any condition that can be associated with pain. I find that when I offer PainTrace and perform this test with pet parents in the room, the compliance rate becomes much higher when together we can visualize the pain spikes. I am a firm believer that seeing is believing for so many things in life, and PainTrace is another testament to this. There is no question that having this technology has helped us demonstrate the value of what we do as a team and helps pets get the diagnostics and treatment that they deserve.”
– Dr. Boaz Man, DVM
PainTrace® Objectively Quantifies Pain to Allow Preventative Detection of Painful Conditions and Accurate Evaluation of the Efficacy of Pain Management
- PainTrace offers qualitative and quantitative monitoring of acute and chronic pain in multiple species including canine, feline, equine, and bovine.
- PainTrace differentiates acute and chronic pain, measuring both magnitude and duration of the pain experience. Understanding the individual experience of pain supports targeted treatment leading the path to wellness.
Benefits
How can PainTrace benefit veterinarians and their patients?
Implementing PainTrace
When to apply PainTrace
Trace 1
Initial Visit
The initial trace is used to establish baseline pain levels to determine the presence or absence of pain to prevent painful conditions from going unnoticed, and to guide diagnostics and treatments
Trace 2
Check-up
The second trace is run at check-up’s following treatments, to ensure the patient is provided effective, individualized care
Trace 3
Annual Wellness Exam
The following traces are run at annual wellness visits to ensure the patient is pain free
Step 1
Prepare the skin and apply sensors
- Shave all fur from the species-specific location
- Clean thoroughly with isopropanol
- Place sensors on completely shaven, clean, and dry skin
- Use SkinTac™ to better adhere sensors to the skin, if necessary
- Attach the PainTrace device and start a trace
Step 2
Perform an exam while collecting PainTrace data
- Perform an exam while annotating to give context to the PainTrace graph
- Annotate using speech to text or tap to text on the PainTrace app
- Quantify acute and chronic pain by determining the Chronic PainTrace Baseline Values and Acute PainTrace Peak deltas
Step 3
Pinpoint source of pain
- Use the PainTrace graph and the context provided by the annotations to visualize presence of acute and chronic pain
- Localize the areas of pain by visualizing the presence or absence of acute peak deltas when addressing specific anatomy
Step 4
Use PainTrace data to guide diagnostics and treatment
- Use the PainTrace graph to guide diagnostics and treatment, providing individualized pain management and specifying follow-up diagnostics to provide fast and efficient care
- By using PainTrace to localize painful areas, you can limit the requirement of diagnostic imaging to only what is necessary
Step 5
Establish a baseline for acute and chronic pain
- The initial PainTrace data collected on this patient can serve as a reference point to compare later PainTrace data to
- This allows you to recognize and diagnose painful conditions quickly in later visits
- This will also serve as an indicator for effective, individualized treatment of pain
Step 6
Use the PainTrace graph to communicate
- Communicate patient pain with the pet owner by using acute PainTrace peak deltas and chronic PainTrace baselines to communicate the need for treatments or diagnostics
- Visualize improvement by using overlay reporting to depict mitigation of chronic and acute pain overtime
- Assure pet owners that treatments are efficacious or adjust treatment plan if you and the pet owner are not seeing the desired improvements
- Continue using PainTrace in later visits to track improvements in pain overtime or recognize subtly painful conditions
Case Example
Initial Visit (Visit 1) with PainTrace: Mild Acute Pain & Chronic Pain
Patient is a 13-year-old Border Collie with a 6/9 body condition score. The dog was brought into the veterinary clinic for stiffness when rising and a lack of stamina. The patient has a history of a right TPLO. Physical exam found pain in the left stifle and left tarsus. PainTrace confirmed the presence of chronic pain with a negative Chronic PainTrace Delta, which can be seen as a negative sloping baseline, where the baseline starts positive, but as the exam continued and the affected anatomy was manipulated, the baseline became negative indicating chronic pain. Mild acute PainTrace peaks were seen in the left stifle and tarsus, and in the right carpus. Radiographs were taken and confirmed the presence of bilateral hip arthritis, bilateral elbow and shoulder arthritis, osteoarthritis in the left tarsus and a left tarsal ligament tear.
Visit 2 with PainTrace: Absence of Pain
The dog was originally on joint supplements and herbs without much relief. Stem cell therapy was performed. Six weeks post-treatment owner reports that the dog seems more comfortable and PainTrace showed the absence of chronic pain and the absence of acute pain peaks at the left stifle, left tarsal, and right carpal during orthopedic exam. The dog was treated with Shockwave therapy at this visit.
Overlay Report of Vist 1 & Visit 2: Data Analysis
The chronic PainTrace baseline delta at the initial visit on 2021-07-22 was -2, indicating the presence of chronic pain. The chronic PainTrace baseline delta at the second visit on 2021-10-28 was 0, with a steady PainTrace baseline around +1, indicating a reduction of chronic after 14 weeks of treatment.
The mild acute PainTrace peaks associated with the Left Stifle, Left tarsal, and Right carpal on 2021-07-22, turned into no acute PainTrace peaks at the same locations post-treatment on 2021-10-28. This indicated a reduction in acute pain after 14 weeks of treatment.