Comparison of buprenorphine and meloxicam for postsurgical analgesia in rats: effects on body weight, locomotor activity, and hemodynamic parameters.

Abstract

Buprenorphine is administered to humans and animals for postoperative pain management, although its use is associated with complications. Alternative analgesics, including the nonsteroidal antiinflammatory meloxicam, are available, but information on their postoperative effects is limited. The objective of the present study was to compare buprenorphine (0.03 mg/kg SC twice daily for 3 d) with meloxicam (2 mg/kg SC initial dose followed by 1 mg/kg SC once daily for 2 d) by assessing parameters relating to postsurgical recovery in rats that underwent surgical implantation of radiotelemetric transducers. Rats treated after surgery with buprenorphine showed greater reductions in body weight, food consumption, locomotor activity, and nighttime heart rates than did meloxicam-treated rats. Buprenorphine and meloxicam treatments both had stimulatory effects on mean arterial pressure and daytime heart rate measurements, although effects on nighttime mean arterial pressure were greater in the buprenorphine-treated rats. In summary, the lesser physiologic changes associated with meloxicam, as compared with buprenorphine, suggest that meloxicam offers advantages for use as a postoperative analgesic after laparotomy and radiotelemetric transducer implantation in rats.

• Authors: Stephane L Bourque, Michael A Adams, Kanji Nakatsu, Andrew Winterborn
• Journal: Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS (J Am Assoc Lab Anim Sci) Vol. 49 Issue 5 Pg. 617-22 (Sep 2010) ISSN: 2769-6677 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 20858364 (Publication Type: Comparative Study, Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Analgesics, Opioid
• Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal
• Thiazines
• Thiazoles
• Buprenorphine
• Meloxicam

Topics

• Analgesia (veterinary)
• Analgesics, Opioid (therapeutic use)
• Animals
• Anti-Inflammatory Agents, Non-Steroidal (therapeutic use)
• Blood Pressure (drug effects)
• Body Weight (drug effects)
• Buprenorphine (therapeutic use)
• Feeding Behavior (drug effects)
• Heart Rate (drug effects)
• Male
• Meloxicam
• Motor Activity (drug effects)
• Pain Measurement (methods, veterinary)
• Pain, Postoperative (drug therapy, prevention & control, veterinary)
• Random Allocation
• Rats (surgery)
• Rats, Sprague-Dawley
• Thiazines (therapeutic use)
• Thiazoles (therapeutic use)
• Treatment Outcome