Abstract
Sir: As a longstanding member of ISPO, I would like to express my concern over the animal welfare in the experiments of M. Akai et al. as reported in their paper ‘A computer-controlled contracture correction device with low-load and continuous torque: An animal experiment and prototype design for clinical use’ in the June 2007 issue of Prosthetics and Orthotics International.
The experiment involved surgery to the rats to induce a flexion contracture, multiple anaesthesia and stretches to one group, and the suspending of rats with rear legs raised for 5 – 7 days with a constant torque device attached in a second group.
During the first part of the experiment, 35% of the rats were excluded from the study due to death (17%), infection/fracture (15%) and insufficient weight gain (3%). During the second part of the study, 19% were excluded due to insufficient weight gain with or without an infectious abscess. The high exclusion rate suggests a high level of suffering for these creatures.
The authors state that they were unable to confirm whether or not the animals felt pain during the application of extension torque and how much physical burden was caused and that this is an unavoidable problem when using an animal model to mimic the clinical situation.
The conclusion of the study was that low load and continuous torque was found to be effective in correcting joint contracture. This confirms what is already widely accepted and thus little new information has been learnt. The design of a new contracture device for clinical use could have been done, I believe without this animal experiment.
By publishing such a paper, I believe that ISPO is endorsing this experiment which has questionable animal welfare safeguards and indeed is probably not necessary in the first instance.