View clinical trials related to Chronic Post-thoracotomy Pain.
Filter by:Chronic Post thoracotomy pain syndrome (PTPS) is defined PTPS as pain that develops or increases in intensity after a thoracotomy and persists beyond the healing process, that's to say at least 3 months after the initiating event. The pain has to be localized to the site of incision or, projected to the innervation territory of a nerve situated in this area or referred to a dermatome or Head's zone (after surgery/injury to deep somatic and visceral tissues The incidence of PTPS is 57% and 47% of patients at 3 and 6 months after thoracotomy, respectively. Management of PTPS begins with prevention. Preventive strategies are based on multimodal preemptive and intraoperative analgesia. Treatment of PTPS is either pharmacologic treatment which is systematically initiated by first line drugs including tricyclic anti-depressants (TCA), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRI), gabapentinoids. Second-line treatments include topical lidocaine, capsaicin, and weak opioid analgesics (tramadol). Third line treatments consist of strong opioids (oxycodone, morphine) and subcutaneous botilinium toxin injection. Other therapies for management of CPTP include such modalities as transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS), Spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation, acupuncture and neurolysis using pulsed radiofrequency for intercostal nerve or dorsal root ganglio and cryoneurolysis for intercostal nerve. The mode of action of pulsed RF is not well-understood, but may include inhibition of excitatory C-fiber responses by repetitive, burst-like stimulation of A-delta fibers, global reduction of evoked synaptic activity and minor structural changes in nerve tissue; elicited by alterations in the function of the blood-nerve barrier, fibroblast activation and collagen deposition.
Chronic post-thoracotomy pain is the most common long-term complication that occurs after a thoracotomy with a reported incidence of up to 80%. While thoracic epidural analgesia has become the mainstay for managing acute post-thoracotomy pain, its effect on the chronic post-thoracotomy pain seems questionable. The objective of this prospective, double-blinded, randomized, controlled trial was to assess the effect of preemptive low-dose epidural ketamine in addition to preemptive thoracic epidural analgesia on the incidence of chronic post-thoracotomy pain.
We assessed the effects of the N Methyl aspartate receptor antagonist Ketamine on long-term post thoracotomy pain. We hypothesized that ketamine could prevent supersensitization of the central nervous system involved in this chronic neuropathic pain.