Surgery

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Surgery

Benefits

Implementing PainTrace

Case Example

“While at Washington State University our team performed TPLO's along with PainTrace and found it to be an effective pain measure.  Reviewing PainTrace data we were able to remotely monitor dogs during overnight recovery, monitored pain, and even saw exactly when they began weight bearing after surgery.  PainTrace is an important tool to improve patient care by measuring and monitoring both acute and chronic pain."

- Dr. Tammy Grubb, DVM, PhD, DACVAA

PainTrace® Objectively Quantifies Pain for Accurate Evaluation of the Efficacy of Treatment

PainTrace® Objectively Quantifies Pain for Accurate Evaluation of Anaesthesia and Analgesia Efficacy

  • 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?

Establish pre-operative pain level

Visualize the pre-operative pain level to help guide medication choices before performing surgery

Quantify the degree of pain

Calculate the magnitude of acute PainTrace peaks related to the experience of acute pain, in real time

Quantify the chronic PainTrace baseline value, related to the experience of chronic pain, in real time

Use objective pain scoring to guide analgesic plan

Use real time objective PainTrace graph to determine acute pain and chronic pain to guide the post-operative analgesic plan

Be certain about the

patient's recovery

Provide tangible visual assessments of acute and chronic pain that can be used to determine when a patient is ready to go home 

Use PainTrace data to provide individualized pain management to ensure the patient is pain-free, and establish with certainty that they are recovering

Communicate recovery progress

with pet owners

Create overlay reports that display multiple traces, allowing you to visualize & track improvements in acute & chronic pain over time and communicate this progress with pet owners

Ensures the patient is receiving individualized care that is effective at reducing their pain

Implementing PainTrace

When to apply PainTrace

Trace 1

Pre-operative

The initial trace is used to establish baseline pain levels prior to surgery to help guide medication choices and illustrate to pet owners the need for surgical intervention

Trace 2

Intra-operative

The second trace is run during surgery and can be used to evaluate analgesic efficacy and anesthetic techniques

Trace 3

Post-operative

The third trace is run after surgery and can be used to determine when a patient is ready to go home. All traces following can be used to monitor recovery, evaluate pain management, and communicate outcomes with the pet owner

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

Establish pre-operative pain levels

 

  • 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
  • In post-op visits, this trace can act as a reference point to ensure the patient has fully recovered

Step 3

Perform surgery while collecting PainTrace data

 

  • Use the real-time PainTrace graph while performing the surgery to continuously evaluate analgesic efficacy including the success of local and regional anesthetic techniques

Step 4

Monitor recovery with PainTrace

 

  • Run a PainTrace during the recovery process.
  • Use the PainTrace graph to determine with certainty that the patient is comfortable and able to go home or to intervene and change direction accordingly

Step 5

Evaluate pain management in following visits

 

  • Use the pre-operative PainTrace as a benchmark to compare to following PainTraces to ensure the patient is recovering
  • Compare the Chronic PainTrace baseline value and the acute PainTrace deltas to evaluate the efficacy of pain management, and rehabilitation post-operatively

Step 6

Communicate recovery progress with client

 

  • Communicate patient pain with the pet owner by using acute PainTrace peak deltas and chronic PainTrace baselines to communicate the need for treatments
  • Visualize improvement by using overlay reporting to depict mitigation of chronic and acute pain overtime
  • Assure pet owners that treatments are efficacious or adjust rehabilitation if you and the pet owner are not seeing the desired improvements
  • Accurately determine necessity for pain management or further rehabilitation

Case Example

Surgery Case 1

Visit 1 with PainTrace Post-Op: Severe & Moderate Acute Pain

Patient is a very sweet Blue Heeler that is very attached to the owner. The dog was previously hit by a car and brought to the humane society, where he was quickly adopted and brought to a veterinarian for FHO surgery. Post-operatively, the dog was brought to this veterinary clinic to begin rehabilitation. During this visit, the dog was non-weight bearing. The PainTrace graph illustrated the absence of chronic pain but the presence of severe acute PainTrace Peaks associated with sit, scoot to sit, lunging forward to sit, and standing from sit. Mild acute PainTrace peaks were seen during examination of the right elbow as well. Rehabilitation and physiotherapy was started.

Visit 2 with PainTrace Post-Rehabilitation: Mild Acute Pain

Two months later, the dog presented for a recheck exam and PainTrace. Only mild acute PainTrace peaks were observed during previously severely painful exercises.

This is an example of using PainTrace to monitor the recovery and pain management, post-operatively.

Surgery Case 2

  • Surgery PainTrace PowerPoint

    Click here to access the PowerPoint version of this website. This was created to assist with implementation of PainTrace in a Surgical Clinic setting.