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Fifty patients undergoing thoracotomy was studied to compare the effects of cryo-analgesia combined with intravenous continuous analgesia (IVCA). Patients were randomized into two groups: IVCA group and IVCA-cryo group. Subjective pain inten-sity was assessed on a visual analogue scale at rest (VAS-R) and during movement (VAS-M). Analgesic requirements were evaluated over the 7 days following surgery. Forced vital capacity (FVC) and forced expiratory volume in 1 sec (FEV1 ) were mea-sured before operation, on the 2nd and 7th postoperative days (POD). We interviewed patients by telephone to evaluate the prevalence of post-thoracotomy pain at the 1st, 3rd, and 6th months postoperatively. No significant differences were observed be-tween the two groups with respect to postoperative pain, analgesic requirements, side effects, respiratory complications, or prevalence of post-thoracotomy pain. How-ever, a significant increase in FVC and FEV1 was observed on the 7th POD in IVCA-cryo group. The incidence of the post-thoracotomy pain at the 1st, 3rd, and 6th months postoperatively was 68, 60, and 44% in IVCA group, and 88, 68, and 28% in IVCA-cryo group, respectively. Our study showed that cryoanalgesia combined with IVCA effectively restore respiratory function on 7th POD, but that it was not effective at reduc-ing the incidence of post-thoracotomy pain.
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