Incidence of chronic pain 6 y after major trauma

Life saving measures is the main focus in the initial treatment of major trauma. In surviving patients, chronic pain may be a serious problem, but the long term incidence and potential risk factors are not very well studied.

All adult trauma patients included in the institutional trauma registry in 2007 were assessed for eligibility. Among exclusion criteria were: Injury Severity Score < 9, endotracheal intubation before or during admission, spinal cord lesion, known chronic drug or substance abuse, major surgery within 3 h after admission. A patient questionnaire was sent out 6 y after injury focusing on frequency and intensity of pain. A subgroup analysis was done in patients with thoracic injuries, comparing patients with epidural analgesia (EDA) and patients without.

Sixty-eight patients were included in the study. Sixty-nine percent reported pain 6 y after injury and 24% had severe pain. The severity of the injury was a risk factor for development of chronic pain, whereas pain during initial hospital stay was not. In patients with thoracic injuries there was no correlation between initial treatment with EDA and decreased incidence of chronic pain, however patient numbers were small. Opioids were the main analgesics used initially; no patients received non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or peripheral nerve blocks during the first 24 h.

Two thirds of the trauma patients had chronic pain 6 y after injury and one out of four had severe pain. The initial pain treatment was focused on opioids.