Cancer-related neuropathic pain at the outpatient pain clinic of the Clinical centre of Serbia: Cancer-related neuropathic pain

Abstract

Introduction: Neuropathic pain is defined as chronic pain caused by disease or lesion of somatosensory nerve system. Positive and negative signs and symptoms are manifestation of neuropathic pain. Cancer-related neuropathic pain represents negative predictive factor of opioid therapy success. Aim: To define the group of patients under the risk for neuropathic pain and to determine quality of protocol for adjuvant analgesics prescription. Methods: The retrospective cohort study included chronic cancer pain patients examined at the outpatient pain clinic of the Clinical Centre of Serbia in 2015. All of the patients were divided in four groups by age. The Pain detect questionnaire was applied for making diagnosis of neuropathy, concerning exclusion criteria. Results: The total 928 chronic pain patients were examined in 2015. Among them, 353 were of cronic cancer pain patients, 262 men and 91 women. Cancer-related neuropathic pain was diagnosed in 55 patients (15.96%). We found that the gender, the type of tumor, cancer specific therapy are significant indepedent predictive factors of cancer-related neuropathic pain. However, distribution of neuropathic pain among gender and the specific type of tumor by age was not significant. Conclusion: The largest number of patients with malignant neuropathic pain component was in group of 60-79 years. Applied adjuvant analgesics prescribing protocol for the treatment of neuropathic pain component of malignant pain and groups of patients for which it is prescribed are similar in other centers.