Chronic Pain After Lung Transplantation and Its Impact on Quality of Life: A 4-Year Follow-up

Aiming to investigate the prevalence of chronic pain and its impact on quality of life of lung transplantation (LTx) recipients, we performed a transversal study collecting data using a standard interview model in 2 different periods: first, in 2016 we studied LTx recipients after 3 to 11 months of the transplantation; and second, in 2019, we studied the same patients after 39 to 55 months of transplantation surgery. The chosen questionnaires were the Brief Pain Inventory and Short-Form Health Survey. Chronic pain was identified in 47.2% of the analyzed recipients at the initial interview and in 40.7% at the second evaluation. In both periods, the domain quality of life was the most affected in contrast to functional capacity, which was the least affected. On the first analysis, a moderate negative correlation was found between pain intensity and functional capacity domains (-0,42/P = .010), pain (-0,46/P = .005), and mental health (-047/P = .004); meanwhile, the second survey showed a moderate/high negative correlation for most of the domains, except for the mental health (-0,036/P = .120). We conclude that the prevalence of chronic pain after LTx is high, and the pain intensity had a moderate negative correlation with domains such functional capacity, mental health, and pain at the first analysis in contrast to the moderate/high negative correlation for almost every domain, except mental health, at the second analysis. •Chronic pain has a high prevalence after lung transplantation and affects the quality of life of lung transplantation recipients.•The analgesic control after major surgeries is difficult and can lead to functional, psychological, social, and behavioral impairment, affecting quality of life and alienating patients from their routine activities.•The prevention of chronic pain after surgical procedures should be done not only by the anesthesiologist, but also by the surgical team.•Research with post-transplantation pain is still scarce, as our study is the first to be performed in Brazil with this focus.