Trial reportThe Annals of thoracic surgery2012
Chronic postthoracotomy pain and health-related quality of life.
Trial report in The Annals of thoracic surgery, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Postoperative Symptom Burden in Patients Undergoing Lung Cancer Surgery.Journal of pain and symptom management · 2022Pooled it
- Surgical complications and their impact on patients' psychosocial well-being: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMJ open · 2016Pooled it
- Ultrasound-Guided Superficial Versus Deep Continuous Serratus Anterior Plane Block in Patients Undergoing Thoracotomy for Lung Surgery: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Annals of cardiac anaesthesia · 2026Trial
- Gabapentin as an adjunct to multimodal pain regimens in surgical patients: the GAP placebo-controlled RCT and economic evaluation.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Trial
- Life satisfaction and pain interference in spine surgery patients before and after surgery: comparison between on-opioid and opioid-naïve patients.Quality of life research : an international journal of quality of life aspects of treatment, care and rehabilitation · 2018Trial
- Effects of anaesthesia type on development of persistent postoperative opioid utilisation: a South Korean nationwide cohort study.Anaesthesia · 2026Article
- Review
- Quality Of Life and Functional Outcomes in Patients with Spinal Metastatic Bone Disease: A Retrospective Observational Study.The archives of bone and joint surgery · 2026Article
- Genome-wide association study on chronic postsurgical pain after abdominal surgeries in the UK Biobank.Anaesthesia · 2025Article
- Neuroinflammatory Pathways Associated with Chronic Post-Thoracotomy Pain: A Review of Current Literature.Molecular neurobiology · 2025Review
- Pain-related impairment in daily activities after lung cancer surgery: A 1-year prospective cohort study.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Article
- LAsting Symptoms after Oesophageal Resectional Surgery (LASORS): multicentre validation cohort study.The British journal of surgery · 2025Article
- Regional analgesia for postoperative pain control after thoracic surgery: a narrative review.Journal of Yeungnam medical science · 2025Article
- The prevalence and predictors of discharge opioid overprescribing in opioid-naïve patients after breast, gynecologic, and head and neck cancer surgery: a prospective cohort study.Canadian journal of anaesthesia = Journal canadien d'anesthesie · 2025Article
- Article
- Efficacy of ultrasound-guided second serratus anterior plane block on postoperative quality of recovery and analgesia after video-assisted thoracic surgery: a randomized, triple-blind, placebo-controlled study.Journal of thoracic disease · 2024Article
- Thoracoscopic pulmonary resection combined with real-time image-guided percutaneous ablation for multiple pulmonary nodules: a novel surgical approach and literature review.Journal of thoracic disease · 2024Article
- Chronic pain after posterolateral and axillary approaches to lung surgery: a monocentric observational study.Journal of anesthesia · 2023Observational
- Modified pericostal suture technique to reduce postoperative pain and provide optimum anatomic restoration after conversion of minimally invasive thoracic surgery to thoracotomy.Kardiochirurgia i torakochirurgia polska = Polish journal of cardio-thoracic surgery · 2023Article
- Pain after thoracotomy: Conquered or to be conquered?Indian journal of anaesthesia · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPain after thoracotomy is common. The objective of this study was to assess whether pain 3 months postthoracotomy negatively impacts quality of life.
methodsOne hundred ten patients were prospectively assessed using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form Health Survey before and 3 months after elective thoracotomy. Pain and medication use were evaluated by questionnaire. Patients experiencing pain at 3 months were compared with patients who did not have postthoracotomy pain.
resultsSeventy-five patients (68%) had pain 3 months postthoracotomy; 12 patients (11%) rated their average pain greater than 3 (out of 10). Eighteen (16%) patients required opioid analgesics. The pain group reported lower SF-36 scores in physical functioning (p = 0.049), bodily pain (p = 0.0002), and vitality (p = 0.044). There were no other significant differences in any SF-36 scale between the pain and non-pain groups.
conclusionsPain is commonly reported at 3 months after elective thoracotomy but is generally mild, shows improvement with time, and does not usually require opioid analgesics. Patients who experience postthoracotomy pain at 3 months are at risk for significantly decreased physical functioning and vitality, but are not at risk for significantly decreased social, emotional, or mental health functioning compared with patients who do not experience postthoracotomy pain at 3 months.
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