Chronic pain following spine surgery

There has been an increasing trends in the procedures of spine surgery in recent years. Postoperative chronic pain in spine surgery can be caused by damage or instability of spinal column; pressure on nerves or segment of spinal cord; or can be due to long lasting nociception caused by inflammation, infection or tumour. Pain that lasts longer than 3-6 months after surgery can be define as postoperative chronic pain. The incidence of postoperative chronic pain after surgical procedures, was between 10-50%. Coping with any type of chronic pain is quite difficult. Chronic postoperative pain can be treated with: NSAIDs, paracetamol, opioids, anticonvulsants and invasive technics such as nerve blocs, central blocs.