Pain following thoracotomy.

Choices in pain management following thoracotomy.

Effective analgesia and blockade of the perioperative stress response may improve outcome and accelerate recovery following thoracic surgery. Although different approaches can achieve the same goal, it seems that a multimodal pain management based on the use of synergistic drugs provides better analgesia. The route of administration of the postoperative analgesic drugs is important, and epidura...

Lung herniation. A cause of chronic chest pain following thoracotomy.

Chronic chest pain is a common complication following thoracotomy, which is generally attributed to intercostal neuritis or neuralgia. Response to medical treatment is poor. We report a case of persistent chest pain following open lung biopsy, which was found to result from lung herniation, a rare, but surgically correctable complication of thoracotomy. Since lung herniation may be easily overl...

Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome and sensory disturbances following thoracotomy at 6- and 12-month follow-ups

BACKGROUND Persistent pain affects a large proportion of patients after thoracotomy and is associated with sensory disturbances. The objective of this prospective study was to investigate the time course of pain and sensory disturbances over a 12-month period. METHODS Patients scheduled for thoracotomy were recruited. Data were collected on the day before surgery, including baseline character...

Pain control after thoracotomy.

Post Thoracotomy Pain Syndrome

Post-thoracotomy pain is one of the most severe and long lasting complications after surgery (1-4) which acutely contributes to limit normal respiratory activity impairing the sputum clearance and reducing ventilatory function (5). Along with limb amputation, thoracotomy is the surgical procedure with the highest risk of severe and long lasting acute postoperative pain (6). Moreover, a chronic ...