Identifying Patients at High Risk of Chronic Pain After Video-Assisted Thoracoscopic Surgery Using Thermal Quantitative Sensory Testing.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether perioperative thermal quantitative sensory testing could be used to identify patients at high risk of chronic pain after video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS). DESIGN: A single-center, prospective, observational study. SETTING: At the Peking University People's Hospital. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 111 patients scheduled to undergo VATS were enrolled. INTERVENTIONS: Quantitative sensory testing was conducted at the anterior intercostal incision prior to surgery and after chest tube removal. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: The patient's chronic pain was assessed at 3 months after surgery using a questionnaire. The incidence of chronic pain was 35 out of 107 evaluable patients (32.7%). Among the 35 patients with chronic pain, 26 had features characteristic of neuropathic pain (74.3%). Compared to the patients without chronic pain, subjects with chronic pain had a significantly greater perioperative change in cold pain threshold (CPT; p = 0.032), but not cold detection threshold, warm detection threshold, and hot pain threshold . In the multivariate regression, perioperative CPT change was associated with chronic pain after VATS (odds ratio = 1.043, p = 0.026). CONCLUSIONS: Chronic pain after VATS is typically neuropathic. The change in perioperative CPT at the incision site may help to identify patients at higher risk of chronic pain after VATS.