Abstract
Patients undergoing thoracic surgery experience particular challenges for acute pain
management. Availability of standardized diagnostic criteria for identification of
acute pain after thoracotomy and video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS) would provide
a foundation for evidence-based management and facilitate future research. The Analgesic,
Anesthetic, and Addiction Clinical Trial Translations, Innovations, Opportunities,
and Networks (ACTTION) public-private partnership with the United States Food and
Drug Administration, the American Pain Society (APS), and the American Academy of
Pain Medicine (AAPM) formed the ACTTION-APS-AAPM Pain Taxonomy (AAAPT) initiative
to address absence of acute pain diagnostic criteria. A multidisciplinary working
group of pain experts was invited to develop diagnostic criteria for acute thoracotomy
and VATS pain. The working group used available studies and expert opinion to characterize
acute pain after thoracotomy and VATS using the 5-dimension taxonomical structure
proposed by AAAPT (i.e., core diagnostic criteria, common features, modulating factors,
impact/functional consequences, and putative mechanisms). The resulting diagnostic
criteria will serve as the starting point for subsequent empirically validated criteria.
Perspective Item
This article characterizes acute pain after thoracotomy and VATS using the 5-dimension
taxonomical structure proposed by AAAPT (ie, core diagnostic criteria, common features,
modulating factors, impact and/or functional consequences, and putative mechanisms).
Key Words
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: April 10, 2021
Footnotes
Funding: This work was supported by the ACTTION partnership.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no competing interests.
Identification
Copyright
© 2021 by United States Association for the Study of Pain, Inc.
