Pain catastrophizing scale (PCS)-magnification correlates the period of acute post-operative pain in orthognathic surgery

Purpose: Pain catastrophizing scale (PCS) is useful to predict anxiety of patients before medical treatment. The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between pre-operative PCS and the period of acute post-operative pain after orthognathic surgery.
Methods: This study was conducted in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki, approved by the Ethics Committee of Meikai University (A1624), and registered with the University Hospital Medical Information Network (UMIN) clinical trials registry (number UMIN 000026719). Nineteen patients scheduled for orthognathic surgery (5 men and 14 women, age 27.8 ± 9.1 (mean ± SD) years) participated and performed Japanese version of PCS assessments prior to the surgery. All patients received a routine post-operative pain management protocol, consisting of acetaminophen 3000 mg per day (every 8 hours). Patients were offered additional analgesia upon request. The period of consumption for post-operative analgesics was recorded. The relationships between PCS-total score, PCS-rumination, PCS-magnification, PCS-helplessness and the period of consumption for post-operative analgesics were analyzed with Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results: PCS-total score, PCS-rumination, PCS-magnification, and PCS-helplessness were 21.05 ± 10.79, 11.10 ± 4.95, 4.26 ± 3.19, and 5.68 ± 3.69, respectively (mean ± SD). The period of consumption for post-operative analgesics was 8.2 [5.8 - 9.3] days (median [interquartile range]). A significant positive correlation was detected between PCS-magnification and the period of consumption for post-operative analgesics (R=0.49, p=0.022).
Conclusions: Pre-operative PCS-magnification correlates the period of acute post-operative pain in orthognathic surgery. Further studies in larger cohorts are needed to substantiate the present findings.