Vullo, C., Falcone, A., Marino, G. et al. 2023. Comparison between the effects of epidural lidocaine, tramadol, and lidocaine–tramadol on postoperative pain in cats undergoing elective orchiectomy. Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica 65(1), 33.

In veterinary clinical practice, orchiectomy is one of the most common surgical procedures for cats and is performed mainly in young animals. The purpose of this study was to compare three different epidural (EP) analgesic protocols used in cats undergoing orchiectomy in order to determine which protocol resulted in superior outcomes in terms of perioperative analgesia. Twenty-one client-owned male cats were premedicated with a combination of dexmedetomidine (10 µg/kg) and midazolam (0.2 mg/kg) injected intramuscularly. Anesthesia was induced intravenously with propofol. Cats were randomly divided in three treatment groups of seven animals each: Group L received EP lidocaine (2 mg/kg), Group T received EP tramadol (1 mg/kg), and Group LT received EP lidocaine (2 mg/kg) plus tramadol (1 mg/kg). The post-operative pain level was assessed using two different scales: the Glasgow Composite Measure Pain Scale-Feline (CMPS-F) and the Feline Grimace Scale (FGS). Rescue analgesia was administered when the CMPS-F total score was ≥5 or the FGS total score was ≥4.