The purpose of this study is to investigate whether there is a correlation between a patients pain sensitivity and their subsequent post-operative pain and surgical outcome in arthroscopic shoulder surgery.

Arthroscopic shoulder surgery is increasingly performed on a daycase basis. Optimal pain relief is the goal as this not only improves patient comfort and allows expedient discharge from hospital, but also reduces the risk of developing postoperative chronic pain and may improve surgical outcome. However, optimal postoperative pain control in daycase surgery remains a challenge. There is considerable variation in the level of postoperative pain experienced between individuals and subsequent analgesia requirements. Previous studies have attempted to predict the level of postoperative pain an individual will experience, using a variety of complex preoperative pain and psychological assessments. Other investigators have focused on a simpler approach, by testing an individual's pain threshold to a single preoperative nociceptive (painful) stimulus, e.g. heat or pressure. Recent work has produced a simple questionnaire alternative to pain intensity testing, the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ). We hypothesise that a patient's pain sensitivity preoperatively may both affect the level of pain they experience postoperatively and their final surgical outcome.

The aim of our study is to correlate a patient's pain sensitivity, as measured by the Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire, with the degree of acute postoperative pain (first 4 days) they experience and subsequent surgical outcome at 6 months.

Inclusion Criteria:

All patients aged 18 years or older, attending for arthroscopic shoulder surgery (stabilisation, rotator cuff repair, arthrolysis, subacromial decompression), able to give informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Unable to give informed consent
• Documented sensory abnormality (e.g. peripheral neuropathy)
• Contraindication to proposed anaesthetic/analgesic regimen
• No telephone or unable to communicate in English
• Documented psychiatric disorder
• Documented/suspected substance abuse

Patients presenting for elective arthroscopic shoulder surgery