Clinical effect of combination therapy with pregabalin for the treatment of chest wound pain after thoracic surgery

Abstract

Postoperative pain after thoracotomy and thoracoscopic surgery is often prolonged because of the occurrence of neuropathic pain due to intercostal nerve injury. The aim of this study was to examine whether the combination therapy of pregabalin with NSAID for postoperative pain with a neuropathic component is effective. The present study demonstrated that, in patients with neuropathic pain treated by combination therapy of pregabalin in conjunction with NSAID, the mean visual analogue scale (VAS) and numeric rate scale (NRS) reduction rate were significantly reduced compared to NSAID-only therapy in both the thoracotomy group and thoracosopic surgery group. This pain is thought to be composed of both nociceptive and neuropathic components and linked with late convalescence after an operation. The novel analgestic drug, pregabalin, may attenuate a patient's symptoms including neuropathic pain after thoracotomy combined with NSAID.