Unravelling chronic postsurgical pain after total knee replacement: what is the role of altered central pain processing and metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes?

Total knee replacement (TKR) surgery is the most common surgical treatment for knee osteoarthritis (OA) worldwide. Despite a good outcome for the majority of patients, approximately 20% of patients experience chronic pain after surgery. Therefore, it is desirable and useful to define predictive factors for this postoperative chronic pain. It is hypothesized that the presence of altered central pain processing (CPP) may be a determinant of chronic pain after TKR surgery. Besides altered CPP, metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes might also contribute to postoperative chronic pain. Both disorders are risk factors for developing knee OA in the first place, but their relationship with postoperative chronic pain is not yet clear. In addition, the association between altered CPP on the one hand and obesity and diabetes on the other hand needs to be examined. Due to their shared relation with low grade inflammation, there might exist an undiscovered link between these conditions. Given the prediction that the incidence of TKR will increase in the future, prevention of chronic postoperative pain is of tremendous importance. Therefore, the aim of this research proposal is to unravel the contribution of preoperative altered CPP, obesity and diabetes to chronic postoperative pain after TKR surgery.

Keywords:OSTEOARTHRITIS, METABOLIC DISORDERS, PAIN ASSESSMENT

Disciplines:Kinesitherapy, Physiotherapy, Rehabilitation

Project type:Collaboration project