Study Start Date: 02/01/2007
Study End Date: 01/01/2009

Preemptive gabapentin administration to reduce pain and opioid requirements after spinal surgery in dogs.

Canine patients presenting for spinal surgery are often painful. These dogs typically receive opioids in an attempt to relieve pain; however opioids may not have optimal efficacy on pain due to neural damage as likely present in most of these patients. Gabapentin is an anticonvulsant drug that has been shown to produce analgesia in several models of chronic pain. Three recent clinical studies in people showed that the preemptive administration of gabapentin to patients undergoing spinal surgery improved pain relief compared to the administration of opioids alone, and allowed a reduction in opioid consumption associated to a decrease in adverse effects. In this study, we propose to determine whether preemptive gabapentin administration improves post-operative analgesia after spinal surgery in dogs.

We hypothesize that gabapentin will improve postoperative analgesia after spinal surgery in dogs, and will reduce opioid requirements. We will compare the effects of gabapentin (30 mg/kg) given orally pre-operatively and on the first 2 post-operative days to those of a placebo on post-operative pain scores in dogs undergoing spinal surgery for cervical type 1 disc disease. Additionally, we will compare the effects of gabapentin to those of a placebo on cumulative opioid consumption (i.e. the amount of opioid administered during the first 48h after surgery to alleviate pain) in dogs undergoing spinal surgery for cervical type 1 disc disease.

Study Design:
Prospective Double-blinded Randomized placebo-controlled.

Sample Size:
50 dogs

Inclusion criteria:

• Dogs with ASA class 1 or 2 (i.e. with no systemic disease) undergoing surgery for correction of cervical type 1 disc disease.
• Dogs have to be referred to UC Davis for surgical management. The study is only enrolling dogs operated on at UC Davis.

Exclusion Criteria:
Dogs with concurrent systemic illness or disc disease that is other than cervical type 1 disc disease.

Study Controls:
Dogs will be randomized to gabapentin or placebo.

Study Endpoints:
Pain score 48 hours after surgery.

Costs/Reimbursements:
Owners are reimbursed $200 for participating in the trial.

Client Consent:
Clients will need to sign a consent form.

Full Disclosure information:

• The study is funded by a private grant (confidential).
• The investigators do not have any conflict of interest.
• The study will be published if results are negative.
• The study will be reported on VIN.
• The authors will acknowledge VIN if the study is published.