Phenomics and Genomics of Clinically Relevant Chronic Postsurgical Pain

Summary

Participation Requirements

Description

Most patients who undergo surgery heal within weeks to months and return to their baseline functional status or to an improved level of functioning. However, some patients have pain after surgery which continues. The purpose of this study is to see if there is a relationship between patient's geneti...

Most patients who undergo surgery heal within weeks to months and return to their baseline functional status or to an improved level of functioning. However, some patients have pain after surgery which continues. The purpose of this study is to see if there is a relationship between patient's genetic makeup (diseases that are passed on in families) and pain experience following cardiac and thoracic surgeries. This study will look for links between psychological factors, environmental factors and genetic factors in an attempt to uncover the risk for developing chronic post-surgical pain. This study hopes to determine differences between traditional pain surveys and a basic science approach called "Phenomics" to measure chronic pain response after cardiac and thoracic surgery. Phenomics or Phenomes is the study of physical characteristics, outside influences and biochemical changes (traits or chemical characteristics) and their response to either the environment or genetic changes. Validated pain questionnaires will be administered before surgery, and will repeated at 3, 6, and 12 months postoperatively to follow up the progression of early postoperative pain and the transition to chronicity. In general, the psychological and pain questionnaires are designed to measure the following: anxiety, thoughts, feelings and reactions toward pain and stressful experiences. In addition, the study will follow the development of acute postoperative and chronic pain from before surgery up to a year after. The investigators will extract DNA from blood and contrast the genetic variations of participants with clinically significant chronic pain, to identify variations associated with the development of chronic post-surgical pain. The blood sample will be drawn at the time of the surgery.

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