Editorial Management of Postoperative Pain

Traumatology had “taken as one of its responsibilities the dissemination of information designed to minimize the discomfort of animals, ” including not only animals that the veterinarian sees as patients, but also animals used in experimental procedures. The editorial noted that in most countries there are regulations that “provide for the care of animals that are used in experimental studies. ” The author emphasized the fact that the management of postoperative pain is crucial, whether the patient be a human or an animal. Sumner-Smith noted that he had been told by an orthopaedic surgeon that the orthopaedic surgeon did not give his research animals any postoperative analgesics because he “did not want them moving about and possibly spoil the experiments. ” Sumner-Smith deplored this callous attitude and stated that he believes, in addition, that “the results of such experiments must be suspect.” In the past, The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery has frequently asked authors to include a paragraph re-garding the postoperative management of animals used in research. However, this paragraph has not specifically included the management of postoperative pain. As The Journal believes that it is its responsibility to ensure that animals used in studies reported in its pages are properly managed, The Journal will, in the future, require that information regarding the management of postoperative pain be included in the paragraph dealing with the post-operative care of animals