Grant: Project Grant - PA: Patient-Oriented Research: Early-Career Investigator

In Canada, >1.8 million same-day surgeries are performed annually and are generally considered lower risk interventions. Within a few hours after same-day surgery, patients are sent home and are required to self-administer pain medication. However, given the ambulatory shift in surgery seen in past decades, more invasive procedures are now considered suitable for same-day surgery, which may be associated with greater postoperative acute pain. Further, elderly patients are now commonly offered same-day interventions, for which self-administration of pain medication may be challenging. Canadian data suggest that up to 1 in 10 patients requires an unplanned hospital visit within 30 days following the same-day surgery and poorly controlled postoperative pain is one of the main causes of readmission. There is limited contemporary data on the incidence, risks, and impact of postoperative pain following same-day surgery. Treating postoperative pain is crucial to ensure a good recovery after surgery and prevent pain from persisting chronically. The goal of this study is to identify which patients are at higher risk of suffering pain after surgery, both early and long-term after surgery. Developing tools to identify such patients would allow clinicians to implement strategies to rapidly and efficiently treat postoperative pain to prevent adverse postoperative events.