Systematic Review on Pain-Related Outcome Domains After Sternotomy: A First Step Toward the Development of a Core...

Area of Science:

• Pain Management
• Surgical Recovery
• Clinical Research Methodology

Background:

• Insufficient postoperative pain management significantly impacts patient recovery and quality of life.
• Lack of standardized outcome measures hinders research comparability in pain management interventions.
• Sternotomy is a common surgical procedure with significant associated acute pain.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically identify and categorize outcome domains used in research on acute pain management after sternotomy.
• To lay the groundwork for developing a core outcome set for perioperative pain research.
• To address the need for harmonized outcome reporting in surgical pain management.

Main Methods:

• Systematic literature review of randomized controlled trials and observational trials.
• Searched MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL databases for studies on adult sternotomy pain (≤2 weeks post-op).
• Qualitative summary of identified study characteristics and outcome domains after full-text extraction.

Main Results:

• 156 studies were included, identifying 80 distinct outcome domains.
• Most frequent domains included pain intensity, analgesic consumption, physiological function, and adverse events.
• Outcome reporting was often non-explicit and heterogeneous, with limited consideration of patient perspectives.

Conclusions:

• Significant heterogeneity in outcome domains and assessment tools necessitates harmonization.
• Standardized outcome reporting is crucial for improving the quality and comparability of pain management research.
• Developing a core outcome set is essential for consistent evaluation of surgical pain interventions.