Although lots of different pain-related behaviours were identified, only some were thought to be useful for scoring pain.
In order to be practicable, a pain scoring scheme needs to use behaviours that can be readily identified by relatively inexperienced staff. It also needs to be applied rapidly and be capable of assessing behaviour in a short period of time, as large numbers of animals may need to be scored at once.
This video clip illustrates a series of these key behaviours. A detailed description of the scoring system and its use will be provided in a further tutorial.
The pain scoring system for rats can, at present, only be used after abdominal surgery. Many of the behaviours are related to the presence of visceral pain, as they are seen not only after different types of abdominal surgery (Ref #3), but also in rats with conditions such as renal colic (Ref #2).
Identifying what behaviours may be useful after other surgical procedures such as craniotomy requires more research.
