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Overview of Chronic Post-thoracotomy Pain: Etiology and Treatment

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Intensive Care Medicine

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Abstract

The first reference to chronic post-thoracotomy pain was in 1944 by United States Army surgeons who noted ‘chronic intercostal pain’ in men who had thoracotomy for chest trauma during the Second World War [1]. Chronic post-thoracotomy pain is defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain as pain that recurs or persists along a thoracotomy incision at least 2 months following the surgical procedure [2]. It is typically burning and dysesthetic in nature and has many features of neuropathic pain [3, 4]. Post-thoracotomy pain also may result, at least in part, from a non-neuropathic origin (myofascial pain) [5]. Several studies have estimated the incidence of post-thoracotomy pain as ranging from 25–60 % which makes postthoracotomy pain the commonest complication of thoracotomy. Thoracotomy, along with limb amputation, is considered to be the procedure that elicits the highest risk of severe chronic postoperative pain [6]. This chapter outlines the prevalence of this condition and then discusses the potential etiological factors and treatment strategies and possible future research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain, Warwick Medical School, Bordesley Green East, Birmingham, B9 5SS, UK

    P. K. Battu, T. D. Priest & F. Gao-Smith

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  1. P. K. Battu
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  2. T. D. Priest
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  3. F. Gao-Smith
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Intensive Care Erasme Hospital, Université libre de Bruxelles, Route de Lennik 808, 1070, Brussels, Belgium

    Jean-Louis Vincent MD, PhD, FCCM, FCCP (Head) (Head)

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Battu, P.K., Priest, T.D., Gao-Smith, F. (2010). Overview of Chronic Post-thoracotomy Pain: Etiology and Treatment. In: Vincent, JL. (eds) Intensive Care Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5562-3_43

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-5562-3_43

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-5561-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-5562-3

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