Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The field rehabilitation in veterinary medicine has expanded over the past ten years. Animals
with disorders in the musculoskeletal system are often treated. The methods used lack
sufficient scientific documentation; however claim to affect the animal's function in a positive
way. In order to investigate the efficacy of different rehabilitation modalities, it is important to
use validated evaluation tolls. Therefore, a literature study on pain, pain-scales and functional
test was performed together a pilot study on a functional test.

The aim of the present pilot-study was to investigate a functional test, "Bioarth functional
evaluation scale", used in veterinary medicine. The test was introduced at the "International
symposium on rehabilitation and physical therapy in veterinary medicine" in the Netherlands in
2006, and can be used as a complement to the clinical examination. The test has earlier been
investigated on healthy dogs, and was shown to have high inter- and intratester reliability. The
test was also considered easy to perform.

In the present study, we investigated dogs with osteoarthros. The test was easy to perform, but
the evaluation of the test was considered somewhat difficult as the grading of the functional
deficits was considered to diffuse. Despite this, the test results were highly consentient both
between evaluators, and within the same evaluator when evaluated twice. Further, the
evaluators stated that the test may be of more value when evaluating younger dogs with a welllocated
injury, then older dogs with multiple joint diseases. Finally, some suggestions for
improvement of the test have been added to the study.