For those who have had surgery, are you experiencing thoracic pain around your incision site and chest wall? I am 6 month post op on my left side and I experience chronic, achy chest pain near my left breast and sharp pain around my incision site on my clavicle that extends to my back. Most of the time the pain is mild but last month is was bad enough to send me to the ER.

Here is an abstract I found on PubMed:
Postthoracotomy pain syndrome is relatively common and is seen in approximately 50% of patients after thoracotomy. It is a chronic condition, and about 30% of patients might still experience pain 4 to 5 years after surgery. In the majority of patients pain is usually mild and only slightly or moderately interferes with normal daily living. In a small subset of patients pain can be severe and can be described as a true disability to the extent that these patients are incapacitated. The exact mechanism for the pathogenesis of PTPS is still not clear, but cumulative evidence suggests that it is a combination of neuropathic and nonneuropathic (myofascial) pain. Trauma to the intercostal nerve during thoracotomy is the most likely cause. Because pain does not cause disability in the majority of patients, management is usually conservative. If pain is causing disability then multidisciplinary pain management involving the pain specialist, social worker, physical therapist, and a psychologist is required. It is mandatory to exclude recurrence of disease or malignancy as a cause for the pain prior to initiating treatment. As with most forms of neuropathic pain, treatment of PTPS is also difficult and patients might require more than one form of therapy to control pain and reduce disability. Based on current evidence, it is not possible to draw any firm conclusion regarding whether any form of analgesic or surgical technique can influence the generation of PTPS. Preemptive analgesia initiated prior to surgery shows promise and might help reduce the incidence of PTPS. Scientific evidence is steadily growing but there is still a need for large, prospective, randomized trials evaluating PTPS. Until more is known about this condition and how to prevent the central and peripheral nervous system changes that produce long-term pain after thoracotomy, patients must be warned preoperatively about the possibility of developing PTPS and how it might affect their quality of life after surgery. In addition, measures such as selecting the least traumatic and painful surgical approach, avoiding intercostal nerve trauma, and adopting an aggressive multimodal perioperative pain management regimen commenced before the surgical incision should be performed to prevent postthoracotomy pain syndrome.

I'm sorry to read this, I haven't heard of it before. I hope they can help and get it figured out for you.

Was your surgery a Thoracotomy or for TOS.......I would think the pain you are having is possibly from scar tissue that has formed and if you had breathing issues/chest pains post op it might be due to the phrenic nerve being damaged causing your diaphragm to be elevated and causing the chest pain.....mine was elevated still at 20 months post op.

A thoracotomy by definition is a surgical incision into the chest cavity. Think lung surgery, esophagus removal, paraseophageal hernia repair, etc. Incision is normally made over the lung area either in front, back, side or a combination of those locations. The body is entered from the chest in what is called a thoracic approach, or thoracotomy. TOS surgery does not enter the body through the chest well and does not qualify as a thoracotomy. TOS surgery uses a supraclavicular or axillary approach depending on the surgeon's preference and/or the patient's needs. During TOS surgery, the lung is purposely punctured to remove the ribs, entering the pleural cavity, but this is hardly a thoracotomy. The data from that study really don't apply to you. You should definitely discuss this with your surgeon. Good luck.

Edit: Mind you these thoracic incisions are often very invasive and long, sometimes over 12 inches in length depending on the operation. They often damage nerves. I can see how this could cause chronic pain. I'm a RN who routinely cares for this population after surgery.

Hi everyone,

I had a posterolateral thoracotomy and laminectomy in December 2013 and I have been looking for forums where other people are discussing their thoracotomy experiences.

Exactly 7 months on, I'm still experiencing pain, with varying degrees of severity. The chest pain is by far the worst when it happens.

I've created a blog (only just started, lots of work to go!) to document my own experiences and I hope that other people will share theirs too. It's amazing how incredibly dated some of these forums are, so I thought I'd try and put a fresh face on the subject.
*edit*

Good luck to everyone who's recovering. I hope you'll *edit* share your experiences.

Russ

Hi all.
2 years ago i had lung surgery because of a tension pnuemo thorax and ended up losing a portion of my lung. I have been in pain daily. I showed my pm about ptps and he agreed i have it and unfortunately mines debilitating. I also have RSD. I will soon be going for a spinal cord stimulator trial. I pray I get relief. This has changed my entire life.
However im glad i found this, its difficult explaining pain that no one can understand.

Hi..new to forum(&don't belong to any others this is my first) As I've had a difficult time finding info on pain that's disabling Dailey since I had a major thorocotomy repair from a Herniated & Strangled Lung that herniated thru back chest wall..then became strangulated. Surgery was an incision (14 inches long) along side & Dr's told me if the lung wasn't herniated/& strangled they would not ever done repair as I would most likely experience pain severely due to trauma during surgical repair. This IS unfortatly my life now..disabling pain. Has anyone had this same rare lung issue & old school hard core surgical repair to correct defect yet will live in constant pain forever with opiates as only means to temper pain?
Thanks for any interest/suggestions as I've found little to nothing on Lung herniation?? Or how to live w/ after surgery..
(+;

Welcome ordunechick.

Someone will be along to help.

Welcome gcaudle74.

Welcome sustyruss.