Values selleck chemical of SF-36 domain scores represent mean �� SD in the respective group. PMPS, postmastectomy pain syndrome; Non-PMPS, no postmastectomy pain; PF, physical function; RP, role limitations …3.6. Risk Factors for PMPSNo significant association with the report of persistent pain was found in BMI (data not shown), type of surgery, and perioperative adjuvant therapy (Table 3) between patients with pain or without pain. Women with PMPS were younger than those without pain (50.5 �� 8.0y versus 54.6 �� 9.9y, P < 0.05), which implied that younger women tended to develop more pain after surgery.Table 3Risk factors for PMPS.4. DiscussionPMPS attracted considerable attention recently, but there is no agreement regarding the prevalence and risk factors.

The aim of this retrospective study was to show the prevalence of PMPS in Zhejiang province of China. The result revealed that the incidence of PMPS was 27.6%, which was similar to recent studies [7, 11]. Although the chronic pain was generally mild, patients who developed PMPS were at risk for significantly decreased role limitations due to physical problems, body pain, general health, vitality, role limitations due to emotional problems, and mental health. Our results also suggested that women in younger age tended to develop more pain than women in older age.The reported prevalence of PTPS varied from 25% to 60% [1, 2]. This wide interval may be explained by discrepancies in terms of definitions used to ascertain PMPS, timing of assessment, or the age group of the population studied. In this study, we used strict defining criteria to select eligible patients.

The definition of PMPS we applied was the pain lasted for at least three months duration according to the IASP. We excluded nonneuropathic pain and pain outside the distribution of the nerves affected [3, 7].Although prevalence of PMPS is high, this situation is rarely reported in our country, and it is still considered to be relatively uncommon. One explanation is that breast cancer is a potentially life threatening disease, then clinicians and patients mainly focus on the treatments while disregarding the PMPS. Furthermore, very few patients take the oral analgesia, although an increasing number of breast cancer survivors experience pain.

This implied that doctors should follow up patients with emphasis not only on long and effective observation of the treatment, but also on noting any problems advent such as the pain during treatment to enhance the patients’ quality of life. The pathogenic mechanisms of PMPS are multifactorial AV-951 including tissue injury, nerve damage related to surgical procedures, and neuroma pain. Different types of sensory disturbances (e.g., numb, electric shock, distending, itchy, burning, or loss of sensation) are sequelae to surgery and may be an important part of the pain characteristics [12, 13].Risk factors for the development of PMPS can be related to the patient or the surgery itself.