Postoperative Chronic Pain Assessment and THOPA Philosophy

PCP (postoperative chronic pain) was formally defined as a new or different quality of pain (if pain existed before hernia repair) arising as a direct consequence of a nerve lesion or disease affecting the somatosensory system after inguinal hernia repair. The etiology of PCP includes non-neuropathic and neuropathic causes, visceral and somatic pain. Data about the success of various treatment strategies proposed (surgical and nonsurgical) are poor and inconsistent due to limited information on the demographics, differences in definition and evaluation of pain degree, and limited follow-up. Here, we propose our Total Hope Pain Solving Approach (THOPA): in this approach, we try to operate “against” all the possible causes of pain in order to improve the patient’s chance to fix his painful symptoms.