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Pain Management in Thoracic Surgery

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Clinical Thoracic Anesthesia

Abstract

Pulmonary dysfunction of variable intensity occurs in post-thoracotomy patients. The severity of dysfunction depends not only on the sequelae or complex etiopathogenesis of the disease process for which thoracic surgery was done but also on the severity of pain which the patient experiences after thoracic surgery. In such scenarios, pain is the only factor that is manageable. Post-thoracotomy pain when left untreated, is associated with exaggerated pulmonary as well as extra pulmonary complications. This affects the quality of life and satisfaction levels of the patients, thereby resulting in longer hospital stay which in turn incurs increased costs [1]. Acute post-thoracotomy pain, when left unattended, may lead to an even worse situation: chronic post-thoracotomy pain (CPTP) [2, 3]. This type of pain is neuropathic in nature and is generally less detrimental to respiration, but it can be severely incapacitating, making daily activities impossible.

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  1. Institute of Anaesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Manish Kohli & Pradeep Jain

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  1. Manish Kohli
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  1. Institute of Anaesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Jayashree Sood

  2. Institute of Anaesthesiology, Pain and Perioperative Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Shikha Sharma

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Kohli, M., Jain, P. (2020). Pain Management in Thoracic Surgery. In: Sood, J., Sharma, S. (eds) Clinical Thoracic Anesthesia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-0746-5_25

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