Institute for Pain Research & Care Fellowships Cheryl Chow, MSc, PhD Postdoctoral Fellow
“This study has the potential to guide future research on the development of preventive interventions in managing pediatric postsurgical pain.” - Cheryl Chow
Project Title: Predictors andTrajectories of Pediatric Postsurgical Pain Supervisor: Dr. Norm Buckley & Dr. Louis Schmidt
Brief Overview and Progress to Date Postsurgical pain affects up to 1 in 5 children undergoing surgery in Canada each year. It is associated with myriad of adverse clinical, psychological and developmental sequelae including increased analgesic use, delirium, delayed recovery, and fear of future medical care. Although the impact of postsurgical pain in adults is wellestablished, the literature on postsurgical pain in children remains largely unclear and incomplete. The extrapolation from adult data is limiting because children experience, express and perceive pain differently than adults. To date, only a handful of studies have described the course of pediatric postsurgical pain and no studies have examined the predictors and trajectories of pediatric postsurgical pain using objective and valid neurophysiological measures. Given these shortcomings and needs, the proposed project will aim to establish biological, psychological, and social predictors of the development on pediatric postsurgical pain and its trajectory. Moreover, this will be the first study to examine the associations between biomarkers (i.e., EEG, cortisol and heart rate) and pain in pediatric surgery. The findings of this project may help to clarify the roles of anxiety, stress and parental factors on acute and persistent postsurgical pain.
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