KFO 130:  Determinants and Modulators of Postoperative Pain

• Subject Area: Medicine ; Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2005 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5397725

In Germany, more than six millions surgeries are performed annually, and up to 75 percent of patients experience pain after surgery, some of them severe to extreme pain. The alleviation of postoperative pain sometimes is inadequate or insufficient, even when using state-of-the-art approaches of pain management. Also, postoperative pain may persist beyond the expected healing time. The reported incidence of persistent pain may be close to 50 percent, depending on the surgical procedures and operative approaches performed. An emerging clinical literature suggests that severe acute or persistent pain may rapidly evolve into chronic pain. Chronic pain has a significant impact on the community, both economically and in terms of human suffering. Both the severity of postoperative pain and the probability for the development of persistent and chronic pain is influenced by preoperative, intraoperative and postoperative factors.
In this Clinical Research Unit, anaesthesiologists and pain therapists, geneticists, pharmacologists, physiologists, neurologists, and physiological psychologists are involved. Employing basic research and clinical approaches, the team aims to identify neurobiological, pharmacological, genetic and psychological factors that determine acute postoperative pain and that facilitate the transition into persistent and chronic pain. These insights will be important prerequisites to improve postoperative pain management and to prevent the development of persistent and chronic pain in populations at risk.

• DFG Programme: Clinical Research Units

Projects

• Hypervigilanz als Konstrukt zur Prädiktion postoperativer Schmerzen: Entwicklung eines Prophylaxeprogramms und Generalisierung des Modells auf gynäkologische OPs (Applicant Lautenbacher, Stefan )
• Identifizierung von Suszeptibilitäts-Faktoren der postoperativen Schmerzwahrnehmung am Beispiel M.Crohn (Applicant Winterpacht, Andreas )
• Interaktion nozizeptor-spezifischer Membranproteine mit Anästhetika und Analgetika (Applicant Nau, Carla )
• Psychophysiologie und funktionelle Bildgebung der Modulation endogener Schmerzhemmsysteme unter Allgemeinanästhesie (Applicant Maihöfner, Christian )
• Rolle von HCN1- und HCN2-Kanälen in nozizeptiven Neuronen (Applicant Ludwig, Andreas )
• Tierexperimentelle und humangenetische Untersuchungen zur Bedeutung humoraler und aktivitätsabhängiger Mechanismen beim postoperativen Schmerz (Applicant Zeilhofer, Hanns Ulrich )
• Zentralprojekt (Applicant Nau, Carla )

• Leader: Professorin Dr. Carla Nau
• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Jürgen Schüttler