Purpose of review: Persistent postsurgical pain as outcome of surgery has reached more attention in the past years. In the first place because of related disability, long-term use of (opioid)analgesics and impact on the quality of life of individual patients. In addition, the individual and societal socio-economic burden of PPSP is high and increasing in the light of increasing numbers of surgery world-wide.
Recent findings: Actual studies identified risk factors for persistent postsurgical pain in relevant patient populations. Astonishingly, most of predicting factors seem unrelated to surgery.
Summary: Future perioperative practice will have to focus on identifying patients at risk for PPSP before surgery and develop/offer suitable individually tailored preventive interventions.
Copyright © 2022 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.