Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2022 Sep;26(9):677-681.
doi: 10.1007/s11916-022-01069-z. Epub 2022 Jul 11.

Post-thoracotomy Pain Syndrome

J Maloney  1 , C Wie  2 , S Pew  2 , S Covington  2 , M Maita  2 , R Kozinn  3 , M Sabin  4 , J Freeman  2 , M Kraus  2 , N Strand  2
Affiliations
Review

Post-thoracotomy Pain Syndrome

J Maloney et al. Curr Pain Headache Rep. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Purpose of review: This article reviews PTPS demographics, diagnosis, pathophysiology, surgical and anesthetic techniques, and their role in preventing PTPS along with updated treatment options.

Recent findings: Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) can be incapacitating. The neuropathic type pain of PTPS is along the incision site and persists at least 2 months postoperatively. There is a wide reported range of prevalence of PTPS. There are several risk factors that have been identified including surgical technique and younger age. Several surgical and anesthetic techniques have been trialed to reduce pain after thoracotomy. Multimodal pain control is the suggested long-term treatment plan for patients with PTPS. There are several factors that can be modified to reduce pain and incidence of PTPS during the perioperative period and the use of multimodal analgesia is suggested for the treatment of PTPS.

Keywords: Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome; Thoracotomy; Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: • Of importance
    1. Jiwnani S, Ranganathan P, Patil V, Agarwal V, Karimundackal G, Pramesh CS. Pain after posterolateral versus nerve-sparing thoracotomy: a randomized trial. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2019;157(1):380–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtcvs.2018.07.033 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Classification of chronic pain. Descriptions of chronic pain syndromes and definitions of pain terms. Prepared by the International Association for the Study of Pain, Subcommittee on Taxonomy. Pain Suppl. 1986;3:S1–226.
    1. Guastella V, Mick G, Soriano C, Vallet L, Escande G, Dubray C, et al. A prospective study of neuropathic pain induced by thoracotomy: incidence, clinical description, and diagnosis. Pain. 2011;152(1):74–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pain.2010.09.004 . - DOI - PubMed
    1. Kinney MA, Hooten WM, Cassivi SD, Allen MS, Passe MA, Hanson AC, et al. Chronic postthoracotomy pain and health-related quality of life. Ann Thorac Surg. 2012;93(4):1242–7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.athoracsur.2012.01.031 . - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. • Arends S, Bohmer AB, Poels M, Schieren M, Koryllos A, Wappler F, et al. Post-thoracotomy pain syndrome: seldom severe, often neuropathic, treated unspecific, and insufficient. Pain Rep. 2020;5(2):e810. https://doi.org/10.1097/PR9.0000000000000810 . This is a great summary of prevalence of PTPS, surgical factors that affect PTPS, and treatment modalities for PTPS.

LinkOut - more resources