Principal Investigator: Sofia Cerda-Gonzalez

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): 

In response to the need for novel pain management strategies in veterinary medicine, maropitant is increasingly being used for treating both acute and chronic pain in dogs, despite a paucity of assessments of its efficacy in this role. It is particularly employed to treat acute exacerbations of neuropathic pain secondary to syringomyelia when first-line analgesics provide insufficient pain control, unacceptable side effects, or both. It can be similarly difficult to manage post-operative pain following spinal surgery in dogs that are unable to receive non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs due to systemic disease and/or glucocorticoid administration. Opioids are frequently employed in these cases, although they often cause undesirable side effects; gabapentin, in turn, can provide insufficient analgesia post-operatively. In these cases, novel analgesics would improve pain management and reduce opioid-associated side effects. Experimental models describe maropitant’s anesthetic-sparing effects arising from its ability to block a key neurotransmitter in the pain transmission pathway (i.e. substance P) by binding to its NK1 receptor. Although these provide support for maropitant’s potential as an analgesic agent, clinical models are needed to evaluate its analgesic efficacy in conscious (i.e. awake) dogs. In this study we aim to assess this by administering maropitant as a post-operative analgesic agent in conscious dogs. A post-hemilaminectomy model was chosen as a repeatable and proven model of acute post-operative pain, in comparison to the variable pain levels associated with syringomyelia. N.B. Maropitant will not be compared to a placebo, alone, due to ethical concerns regarding inadequate analgesia.