Post-surgical chronic pain and quality of life in children operated for congenital heart disease.

BACKGROUND: Advances in medical technology have resulted in an increased life expectancy in pediatric patients with congenital heart diseases. Assessment of health-related quality of life is crucial to improving their healthcare status. We aimed to assess post-surgical pain prevalence and its impact on health-related quality of life in pediatric patients who underwent cardiac surgery during childhood.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study recruited patients aged 4 years or older who underwent cardiac surgery for congenital heart disease at least 1 year prior, during the age of 0-10 years, and were admitted for post-surgical follow-up at our institute. The prevalence, intensity, and location of pain and health-related quality of life were assessed in an interview. Perioperative information was collected from the patients' medical records. Health-related quality of life was assessed using the Pediatric quality of life inventory 4.0 (PedsQL).

RESULTS: Pain was reported by 24 (17%) of the 141 participants. One-third of them reported moderate to severe pain that required medical intervention. After adjustment for several confounding factors, multivariable linear regression analysis demonstrated that the presence of pain and the number of surgeries were associated with lower total PedsQL scores.

CONCLUSIONS: Pain was present in 17% of the patients who underwent cardiac surgery during childhood. Presence of pain had a negative impact on long-term health-related quality of life after pediatric cardiac surgery.