Quality of Life assessment tools – Pain assessment tools

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4. Pain assessment tools

Published 31 August 2021 | Updated 13 June 2022

While freedom from pain is only one aspect of good welfare and quality of life it is a very important aspect, particularly in veterinary practice where we are frequently dealing with pain, as a result of injury and disease, and need to control and monitor pain that we may inflict as part of the procedures involved in veterinary treatment. There are a number of publications which discuss the recognition of pain, as well as a number of tools which have been developed to try to quantify the pain suffered in order to improve pain relief.

While there may be similarities in assessment tools, for example in the development of “Grimace Scales”, these are species specific. It is also important to consider whether the scale has been developed to assess acute or chronic pain.





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