Chronic Post-Surgical Pain (CPSP)

Chronic post-surgical pain (CPSP) is one of the most common complications of surgery. It is estimated that 10-50 percent of individuals who have undergone surgery experience pain that lasts well beyond the expected healing period.¹

There is no known cause for CPSP, but several factors are known to increase an individual’s risk of suffering chronic, postoperative pain. These include genetic factors, the age and sex of the patient, the presence of preoperative chronic pain, neurophysiological factors, nerve and muscle damage that occurs during surgery, postoperative complications, and acute pain in the early postoperative period.²

Coping with post-surgical pain can be challenging, especially when you undergo surgery expecting it to alleviate, not exacerbate a medical problem. When patients continue to experience debilitating pain post-surgery, they may feel hopeless, frustrated, and angry. In some patients, these feelings can even lead to depression.

Surgery to repair a femoral hernia had left me in chronic pain. I suffered from fatigue and such debilitating low-back pain that made even walking almost unbearably painful.” Read more… 

How We Can Help

At The Kaplan Center, our physicians have years of experience treating patients with chronic pain conditions, and we completely reject the notion that “you just have to live with it.”

At your first visit, your Kaplan physician will take time exploring the onset of your condition, the specific nature of your symptoms and the overall status of your health. You’ll also be asked about the medications and therapies you’ve tried in the past, and what has and hasn’t worked for you. To gather additional information about your condition, specialized diagnostic laboratory testing may be necessary.

After reviewing all of the factors contributing to your condition, your physician will spend time talking with you about your diagnosis and working with you to create a customized and multi-dimensional treatment plan that addresses not only your immediate pain but also any possible underlying or co-existing conditions that may be causing or aggravating your symptoms.

We offer a multitude of effective treatment options, including:

• Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine
• Acupuncture
• Sleep Evaluation & Management
• Herbal Remedies & Nutritional Supplementation
• Physical Therapy
• Psychotherapy, EMDR, and Guided Meditation
• Nutritional Counseling
• Prescription Medication
• Vitamin & Magnesium Intravenous Supplementation
• Meditation Training

Additional Resources:

Medical Acupuncture at the Kaplan Center.
Publication: What is Biofeedback? By Medline Plus, a service of the US Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health