Late sensory changes following chest drain insertion during thoracotomy

AAAPT Diagnostic Criteria for Acute Thoracic Surgery Pain

Patients undergoing thoracic surgery experience particular challenges for acute pain management. Availability of standardized diagnostic criteria for identification of acute pain after thoracotomy and video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) would provide a foundation for evidence-based management and facilitate future research. The Analgesic, Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities, and Networks (ACTTION) public-private partnership with the United States Food and Drug Administration, the American Pain Society (APS), and the American Academy of Pain Medicine (AAPM) formed the ACTTION-APS-AAPM Pain Taxonomy (AAAPT) initiative to address absence of acute pain diagnostic criteria. A multidisciplinary working group of pain experts was invited to develop diagnostic criteria for acute thoracotomy and VATS pain. The working group used available studies and expert opinion to characterize acute pain after thoracotomy and VATS using the 5-dimension taxonomical structure proposed by AAAPT (i.e., core diagnostic criteria, common features, modulating factors, impact/functional consequences, and putative mechanisms). The resulting diagnostic criteria will serve as the starting point for subsequent empirically validated criteria. PERSPECTIVE ITEM: This article characterizes acute pain after thoracotomy and VATS using the 5-dimension taxonomical structure proposed by AAAPT (ie, core diagnostic criteria, common features, modulating factors, impact and/or functional consequences, and putative mechanisms).

A retrospective study of chronic post-surgical pain following thoracic surgery: prevalence, risk factors, incidence of neuropathic component, and impact on qualify of life

Background

Thoracic surgeries including thoracotomy and VATS are some of the highest risk procedures that often lead to CPSP, with or without a neuropathic component. This retrospective study aims to determine retrospectively the prevalence of CPSP following thoracic surgery, its predicting risk factors, the incidence of neuropathic component, and its impact on quality of life.

Methods

Patients who underwent thoracic surgeries including thoracotomy and VATS between 01/2010 and 12/2011 at the First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University were first contacted and screened for CPSP following thoracic surgery via phone interview. Patients who developed CPSP were then mailed with a battery of questionnaires, including a questionnaire referenced to Maguire's research, a validated Chinese version of the ID pain questionnaire, and a SF-36 Health Survey. Logistic regression analyses were subsequently performed to identify risk factors for CPSP following thoracic surgery and its neuropathic component.

Results

The point prevalence of CPSP following thoracic surgery was 24.9% (320/1284 patients), and the point prevalence of neuropathic component of CPSP was 32.5% (86/265 patients). CPSP following thoracic surgery did not improve significantly with time. Multiple predictive factors were identified for CPSP following thoracic surgery, including age<60 years old, female gender, prolonged duration of post-operative chest tube drainage (≥4 days), options of post-operative pain management, and pre-existing hypertension. Furthermore, patients who experienced CPSP following thoracic surgery were found to have significantly decreased physical function and worse quality of life, especially those with neuropathic component.

Conclusions

Our study demonstrated that nearly 1 out of 4 patients underwent thoracic surgery might develop CPSP, and one third of them accompanied with a neuropathic component. Early prevention as well as aggressive treatment is important for patients with CPSP following thoracic surgery to achieve a high quality of life.

Persistent postsurgical pain: evidence from breast cancer surgery, groin hernia repair, and lung cancer surgery

The prevalences of severe persistent postsurgical pain (PPP) following breast cancer surgery (BCS), groin hernia repair (GHR), and lung cancer surgery (LCS) are 13, 2, and 4-12 %, respectively. Estimates indicate that 80,000 patients each year in the U.S.A. are affected by severe pain and debilitating impairment in the aftermath of BCS, GHR, and LCS. Data across the three surgical procedures indicate a 35-65 % decrease in prevalence of PPP at 4-6 years follow-up. However, this is outweighed by late-onset PPP, which appears following a pain-free interval. The consequences of PPP include severe impairments of physical, psychological, and socioeconomic aspects of life. The pathophysiology underlying PPP consists of a continuing inflammatory response, a neuropathic component, and/or a late reinstatement of postsurgical inflammatory pain. While the sensory profiles of PPP-patients and pain-free controls are comparable with hypofunction on the surgical side, this seems to be accentuated in PPP-patients. In BCS-patients and GHR-patients, the sensory profiles indicate inflammatory and neuropathic components with contribution of central sensitization. A number of surgical factors including increased duration of surgery, repeat surgery, more invasive surgical techniques, and intraoperative nerve lesion have been associated with PPP. One of the most consistent predictive factors for PPP is high intensity acute postsurgical pain, but also psychological factors including anxiety, catastrophizing trait, depression, and psychological vulnerability have been identified as significant predictors of PPP. The quest to identify improved surgical and anesthesiological techniques to prevent severe pain and functional impairment in patients after surgery continues.