Assessing the Relationship Between Presurgical Somatization and Chronic Postsurgical Pain Six Month After Cardiothoracic Surgery

Chronic postsurgical pain (CPSP) is difficult to treat and affects thousands of Canadians following cardiothoracic surgery. This study prospectively explored presurgical somatization as a risk factor for CPSP following cardiothoracic surgery, alongside other potential risk factors of CPSP. Prior to surgery, participants responded to demographic, clinical, and psychological questionnaires. Six months after surgery, participants reported their level of CPSP and their pain disability. A total of 549 participants were included in the analyses that explored age, sex, body mass index (BMI), number of presurgical conditions, presence of presurgical chronic pain, opioid use, and presurgical scores of pain catastrophizing, anxiety and depression and somatization as risk factors for chronic pain severity and disability six months after surgery. Only presurgical somatization was found to significantly predict CPSP severity and pain disability six months after cardiothoracic surgery. These results have implications for the implementation of interventions that may reduce the risk of CPSP.