Aims: Post-mastectomy pain syndrome is a common postoperative complication that can impact patient quality of life and function. The aim of this systematic review is to evaluate the effectiveness of cryoneurolysis as an intervention for the management of post-mastectomy pain.
Methods: A prospero-registered systematic review was performed following PRISMA 2020 guidelines. An initial screening consisted of 53 articles imported from the following databases: PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane, and Scopus. Google Scholar and WorldCat were also searched to pull any further articles.
Results: Three clinical trials, one case series, and one case report were included. Primary outcome measure of patient reported pain score (VAS or NRS) showed clinically significant reduction in pain in all five studies. Three of the studies also reported reduction in opioid use with cryoneurolysis intervention. A pooled effect size of Hedges g = -0.963, (95% CI [-1.55, -0.373]), with heterogeneity (I2 = 0.70).
Conclusion: Cryoneurolysis intervention shows promising and clinically significant relief in post-mastectomy pain in patients and further studies are encouraged.
Keywords: Cryoneurolysis; PMPS; mastectomy; pain; pain management; surgery.
Post-mastectomy pain syndrome is when people continue to feel pain long after breast surgery. One way to help this pain is cryoneurolysis. The doctor uses a probe to freeze certain nerves, stopping the body’s pain signal. This study looked at the results from five experiments and found that these patients’ pain got a lot better. But, there were not too many participants in the study, so we should continue to research this area. WIth more research we can figure out the best techniques and make sure there are no long-term side effects before using this treatment on a larger group of people.