BACKGROUND: General thoracic surgeons spend much time dealing and treating @entity1 ' @entity158 after thoracotomy. METHODS: Two hundred eighty consecutive @entity1 underwent elective thoracotomy for pulmonary resection. @entity1 with a history of @entity1118 were excluded. One general thoracic surgeon performed all procedures. All @entity1 had a functioning preoperative epidural, a skin incision the width of their latissimus dorsi muscle which was cut, sparing of the serratus anterior muscle, undercutting of the rib, preemptive analgesia of the intercostal nerve before rib spreading, and similar number of chest tubes and @entity282 management. The first 140 @entity1 had their chests closed with pericostal sutures (stitches placed on top of the fifth rib and on top of the seventh rib), and the next 140 @entity1 had their chest closed with intracostal sutures (stitches placed on top of the fifth rib and through the small holes drilled in the bed of the sixth rib). @entity158 was objectified by a numeric @entity158 score and by the @entity158 questionnaire at 2 weeks, and 1, 2, and 3 months postoperatively. RESULTS: There were 140 @entity1 in each group, and the groups were matched for age, gender, race, types of pulmonary resections, number of chest tubes, number of broken ribs, length of chest tube duration, and length of hospital stay (p > 0.05 for all). The mean @entity158 score for the pericostal group (P group) at 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months postoperatively was 5.5, 3.8, 2.3, and 1.6, respectively. For the intracostal group it was 3.3, 1.7, 1.1, and 0.6, respectively (p = 0.004, p = 0.0001, p < 0.0001, and p < 0.0001, respectively). Descriptors of @entity158 in the P group were more likely to be, hot/burning, shooting or stabbing (p < 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Intracostal sutures seem to be less painful than pericostal sutures at 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, and 3 months after thoracotomy. The @entity158 is less likely to be described as burning or shooting.

Intracostal sutures decrease the XXXX .

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['Patients', 'patients'] @entity282 :: ('MESH:D010149', 'Disease') :: ['postoperative pain'] @entity1118 :: ('MESH:D059350', 'Disease') :: ['chronic pain'] @entity158 :: ('MESH:D010146', 'Disease') :: ['McGill pain', 'Pain', 'pain']
@entity158 :: (MESH:D010146,Disease) :: ['pain of thoracotomy']
