Evaluation of the effect of surgical experience on postoperative pain in castrated dogs

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of surgical experience on postoperative pain after castration performed by experienced and inexperienced surgeons. In the study, 16 clinically healthy male dogs referred to Afyon Kocatepe University Animal Research and Application Center for castration purposes were used. Dogs were randomly divided into two groups: 8 inexperienced surgeon group and 8 experienced surgeon group. All dogs were premedicated by IV administration of 0.3 mg/kg midazolam and butorphanol at a dose of 0.2 mg / kg in the study. After premedication, 4 mg / kg dose of propofol was administered intravenously to provide induction of anesthesia and general anesthesia was achieved with a mixture of 2% isoflurane and oxygen. Castration procedure was applied to the dogs by experienced or inexperienced surgeons according to their groups. Pain assessment of each animal according to the Modified Melbourne Pain Scale was performed and pain scores were recorded at postoperatively at the 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24th hours. Also, blood samples were taken to determine the serum cortisol level during pre-anesthesia and postoperative 0, 0.5, 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24th hours. In the study, it was determined that the pain scores increased in both experienced and inexperienced surgeon groups compared to the baseline values, and the pain scores in the inexperienced surgeon group were higher than the experienced surgeon group. It was observed that cortisol levels were higher in the postoperative period in the inexperienced surgeon group compared to the experienced surgeon group. As a result, it was concluded that the postoperative pain in dogs was lesser in castrations performed by experienced surgeons compared to those castrations performed by inexperienced surgeons.