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Updated: Jun 25, 2026

An Experimental Paradigm for the Prediction of Post-Operative Pain (PPOP)
Published on: January 27, 2010
Prevalence and predictors of postoperative pain after ear, nose, and throat surgery
Michael Sommer1, José W J M Geurts, Bjorn Stessel
1University Hospital Maastricht, Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Treatment, PO Box 5800, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands. mso@sane.azm.nl
Objective:
To determine postoperative pain in different types of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) surgery and their psychological preoperative predictors.
Design:
Prospective cohort study.
Setting:
Academic hospital.
Patients:
A total of 217 patients undergoing ENT surgery.
Interventions:
All ENT, neck, and salivary gland surgery.
Main Outcome Measures:
Postoperative pain and predictors for postoperative pain.
Results:
Fifty percent of the patients undergoing surgery on the oral, pharyngeal, and laryngeal region and on the neck and salivary gland region had a visual analog scale score higher than 40 mm on day 1. In the patients who underwent oropharyngeal region operations the VAS score remained high on all 4 days. A VAS pain score higher than 40 mm was found in less than 30% of patients after endoscopic procedures and less than 20% after ear and nose surgery. After bivariate analysis, 6 variables--age, sex, preoperative pain, expected pain, short-term fear, and pain catastrophizing--had a predictive value. Multivariate analysis showed only preoperative pain, pain catastrophizing, and anatomical site of operation as independent predictors.
Conclusions:
Differences exist in the prevalence of unacceptable postoperative pain between ENT operations performed on different anatomical sites. A limited set of variables can be used to predict the occurrence of unacceptable postoperative pain after ENT surgery.
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