Incidence, Risk Factors and Impact of Significant Pain in Patients Undergoing Neurosurgery

Incidence, Risk Factors and Impact of Significant Pain in Patients Undergoing Neurosurgery

The proposed study intends to evaluate incidence of postoperative pain after neurosurgery. This study is likely to help in understanding of the magnitude of this problem in our country and inform about possible predictors which will help institute pre-emptive interventions to mitigate modifiable risk factors of pain after neurosurgery.

Data regarding potential risk factors for postoperative pain will be collected. Preoperative factors (preoperative pain, anxiety or depression, perception about surgery, age, gender, socio-economic status, educational level, domicile location, obesity, surgical site [infratentorial or supratentorial or cervical, thoracic or lumbar], use of steroids and analgesics), and intraoperative factors (scalp/ESP/caudal block, incision site infiltration, dose of analgesics such as opioids, paracetamol and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), co-analgesics such as nitrous oxide, gabapentionoids, dexmedetomidine, magnesium or lignocaine infusion, anti-epileptics, steroids, minimum alveolar concentration (MAC) of inhalational anesthetics, and duration of surgery and anesthesia) that are likely to be associated with occurrence of postoperative pain will be explored along with relationship between acute and persistent postoperative pain and between intraoperative nociception and postoperative pain.

Inclusion Criteria:

• all eligible consecutive consenting adult patients aged > 18 years with preoperative Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of 15 undergoing elective craniotomies and spine surgeries

Exclusion Criteria:

• children, patients with GCS < 15, patients not extubated within 2 hours of end of anesthesia and those who not able to respond to our questions on outcomes