title: Prospective cohort study assessing chronic pain in patients following minor surgery for breast cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Pain after tumorectomy and sentinel lymph node dissection is poorly reported in the literature. We carried out a prospective survey aimed at assessing pain three months after such minor surgery for breast cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study was approved by the local ethics committee. Most surgeries followed a standard protocol involving general anesthesia with no regional analgesia technique, laryngeal mask, sufentanil and propofol for induction, and multimodal analgesia during the postoperative period. Three months after the surgery, a questionnaire was sent to the patients with a pre-stamped envelope for return. The questions probed responses required to calculate a Brief Pain Inventory score and modified neuropathic pain score (DN3).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Over a 5-month period, 150 patients (aged 60 (11) years, body mass index of 25 (6) kg/m2) were included in the final analysis. In the recovery room, 43% of patients required morphine at a mean dose of 5.2 (1.8) mg. Three months post surgery, 60 patients (40%) reported persistent pain for which 62% took analgesic drugs. We found no risk factor associated with this persistent pain among our studied population. Neuropathic pain was noted in 61% of patients who reported persistent pain primarily associated with periareolar incision.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pain persisted up to three months after minor surgery for breast cancer in 40% of patients with mostly a neuropathic component (61%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Institut Claudius Regaud. University Institute of Cancer Toulouse Oncopole, 1 Avenue Irène Joliot-Curie, 31059, Toulouse Cedex, France. fuzier.r@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Régis
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6298-7523
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fuzier
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Institut Claudius Regaud. University Institute of Cancer Toulouse Oncopole, 1 Avenue Irène Joliot-Curie, 31059, Toulouse Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Floriane
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Puel
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Institut Claudius Regaud. University Institute of Cancer Toulouse Oncopole, 1 Avenue Irène Joliot-Curie, 31059, Toulouse Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Izard
authors.affiliation: Pharmacoepidemiology Research Unit, INSERM 1027, University of Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sommet
authors.affiliation: Department of Anesthesiology, Institut Claudius Regaud. University Institute of Cancer Toulouse Oncopole, 1 Avenue Irène Joliot-Curie, 31059, Toulouse Cedex, France.
authors.forename: Sébastien
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pierre
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000698:Analgesia / Q000379:methods; D000768:Anesthesia, General / Q000379:methods; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008197:Lymph Node Excision; D008875:Middle Aged; D013511:Minor Surgical Procedures; D009020:Morphine / Q000008:administration & dosage; D009437:Neuralgia / Q000453:epidemiology*; D010149:Postoperative Pain / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015742:Propofol / Q000008:administration & dosage; D011446:Prospective Studies; D017409:Sufentanil / Q000008:administration & dosage
chemical_list: D009020:Morphine; D017409:Sufentanil; D015742:Propofol
keywords: Cancer pain; Chronic pain; Neuropathic pain