Preoperative pain sensitivity and its correlation with postoperative acute and chronic pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Preoperative pain sensitivity (PPS) can be associated with postsurgical pain. However, estimates of this association are scarce. Confirming this correlation is essential to identifying patients at high risk for severe postoperative pain and for developing analgesic strategy. This systematic review and meta-analysis summarises PPS and assessed its correlation with postoperative pain. Methods: PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and PsycINFO were searched up to October 1, 2023, for studies reporting the association between PPS and postsurgical pain. Two authors abstracted estimates of the effect of each method independently. A random-effects model was used to combine data. Subgroup analyses were performed to investigate the effect of pain types and surgical procedures on outcomes. Results: A total of 70 prospective observational studies were included. A meta-analysis of 50 studies was performed. Postoperative pain was negatively associated with pressure pain threshold (PPT; r=-0.15, =- 0.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]-0.23 to-0.07]) and electrical pain threshold (EPT; r=-0.28, =- 0.28, 95% CI-0.42 to-0.14), but positively correlated with temporal summation of pain (TSP; r=0.21, = 0.21, 95% CI 0.12-0.30) and Pain Sensitivity Questionnaire (PSQ; r=0.25, = 0.25, 95% CI 0.13-0.37). Subgroup analysis showed that only TSP was associated with acute and chronic postoperative pain, whereas PPT, EPT, and PSQ were only associated with acute pain. A multilevel (three-level) meta-analysis showed that PSQ was not associated with postoperative pain. Conclusions: Lower PPT and EPT, and higher TSP are associated with acute postoperative pain while only TSP is associated with chronic postoperative pain. Patients with abnormal preoperative pain sensitivity should be identified by clinicians to adopt early interventions for effective analgesia. Systematic review protocol: PROSPERO (CRD42023465727).