Surgical Factors Influencing the Occurrence of Chronic Postsurgical Pain

Many different types of operation are commonly associated with severe chronic postsurgical pain: abdominal wall surgery (inguinal hernia repair), thoracic surgery, breast surgery, and cardiac surgery (sternotomy and saphenous vein harvesting). The following surgical factors may be mentioned as causes of this painful complication: the route of access, injury to a nerve trunk during dissection, use of prosthetic material (meshes, plugs, implants), complications and repeated surgery.