Understanding the Acute Pain Phenotype in Patients Undergoing Surgery

Overview

The goal of this observational study is to learn about how regional anesthesia (numbing medication) affects pain in patients with different psychosocial phenotypes such as different levels of concern about pain, sleep issues, and anxiety, who are having surgery. The main questions are: 1. Do psychosocial factors such as concerns about pain, sleep, anxiety affect the effectiveness of regional anesthesia? 2. Do psychosocial factors and regional anesthesia affect the amount of opioids used after surgery? 3. Do psychosocial factors and regional anesthesia affect development of chronic postsurgical pain?

A patient's psychological profile importantly modulates pain severity, and the overall experience and impact of pain. For instance, catastrophic thinking about pain, including magnification, rumination, and helplessness, is associated with both greater pain severity and impact. Over the years, regional anesthesia has become an integral part of multimodal pain management for many surgeries. Regional anesthesia (epidural and peripheral nerve blocks) to be associated with superior pain control, reduced time to return of bowel function, shorter intraoperative times, fewer side effects and complications, earlier ambulation and functional exercise capacity post-discharge, lower in-hospital mortality, reduced length-of-stay, improved patient satisfaction, and fewer readmissions. The investigators aim to use of validated psychosocial surveys and semi-structured interviews to understand the phenotype of patients who will benefit the most from regional anesthesia. The investigators also aim to understand how different patient phenotypes and regional anesthesia affect perioperative opioid consumption, and development of chronic postsurgical pain.

Conditions