Study of perioperative factors in postoperative chronicity of sternal pain

Over two million people undergo sternotomy worldwide for heart surgery each year, and post operative sternal pain may last for months or reappears a long time after sternotomy. The exact etiology of post sternotomy pain is unknown. We aim to find out the association of peri-operative factors with chronicity of sternal pain after open-heart surgery. This is a retrospective observational study on 121 patients who underwent open heart surgeries for various cardiac problems from January 2020 to July 2022 at a tertiary care center. Convenient sampling was performed. Data were analyzed using SPSS-17. Male to female ratio similar with male 60 (49.6%) and female 61 (50.4%), and 95.0% had body mass index (kg/m2) <30. Ninety (76.9%) were individuals without diabetes, 75 (62.0%) were non-hypertensive, 97 (80.2%) were nonsmokers and 22 (18.2%) had abnormal thyroid function. Only 2 (1.7%) had chronic obstructive airway disease and 1 (0.8%) had renal failure. Majority was in sinus rhythm 88 (72.7). Forty (33.1%) had valvular and 53 (43.8%) had ischemic etiology. Majority 110 (90.9%) were ventilated for less than 6 hours and 15 (9.4%) had surgical site infection. Peri-operative risk factors like age of patient, etiology, hypertension, operative procedure, ventilator hours, cardiopulmonary bypass time, intensive care unit stay, and total hospital stay had a significant association with chronicity of pain.