Chronic pelvic pain: An underrecognised perioperative consideration

Chronic pelvic pain (CPP) is a prevalent disorder amongst women. The physiology of CPP is attributed to various neurophysiological mechanisms and endometriosis, adenomyosis, chronic infection and functional disorders such as irritable bowel syndrome or interstitial cystitis are all diseases which fall under the umbrella term of CPP. CPP and its associated multitude of causes can affect perioperative care through several mechanisms. Patients with CPP may be more likely to experience significant pain in the perioperative setting and preoperative pain can be a predictor of post-operative pain. Thus, optimisation of CPP prior to the perioperative period is an important consideration. Currently limited and conflicting evidence exists regarding the peri-operative pharmacological analgesia. The various aetiologies of CPP and patient medical history result in the inability to generalise one analgesic regime. Areas of further research includes neuromodulation techniques, genomic and proteomic biomarker studies and the applicability of artificial intelligence.