Global Prevalence Post-Sternotomy Pain Syndrome (PSPS) after Cardiac Surgery: Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyse

Background: One of the important types of pain is post sternotomy pain syndrome (PSPS). PSPS is defined as pain that persists for 2 months after sternotomy-open cardiac surgery without a specific cause. Methods: In this meta-analysis study, patients undergoing cardiac surgery in which the prevalence of PSPS has been reported were included in the study. Search keywords included pain, heart surgery, prevalence, heart problems, sternotomy and post-sternotomy pain syndrome. The search was conducted by two researchers based on PICO criteria. The time range of the surge was from the beginning of the publication of articles on the outbreak of PSPS until the beginning of August 2024. Data extraction was done using the researcher's checklist and CMA software was used for data analysis. Results: In the search that was done with the primary keywords, 108 articles were extracted, after checking the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 8 articles with a sample size of 3423 patients were included in the meta-analysis stage. The analyzed articles were between the years 2001 and 2024, and their methodology was done in different ways, including retrospective, interview, case-control and original. The age range of patients varied from 13 months to 63 years and the sample size of patients varied from 48 patients to 1395 patients. the overall prevalence of PSPS in the 8 analyzed patient articles was 33.4% (with 95% confidence interval: 22.7-46.1). Conclusions: The prevalence of PSPS in patients worldwide was reported, and drug and non-drug measures are suggested to reduce pain after surgery.