Overview of chronic postsurgical or posttraumatic pain

Chronic postsurgical and posttraumatic pain is pain that develops or increases in intensity after a surgical procedure or tissue injury (involving any trauma including burns), and persists beyond the healing process (ie at least 3 months after surgery or trauma). Exclude other causes of pain (eg infection, malignancy, pre-existing pain) prior to diagnosing chronic postsurgical or posttraumatic pain.

Chronic postsurgical or posttraumatic pain often has a neuropathic component and can be:

• localised to the surgical field or area of injury
• projected to the innervation territory of a nerve situated in the injured area
• referred to other tissues that share the same spinal segmental innervation (eg dermatomes, myotomes).