Preoperative and postoperative pain in total knee replacement patients.

This descriptive study examined pain descriptors in a group of patients with arthritis prior to total knee replacement (TKR), and on postoperative days 1 and 3. The McGill Pain Questionnaire (MPQ), consisting of 78 descriptive words in 20 subclasses of descriptors scaled on intensity dimensions, was administered to each subject prior to and on two occasions after surgery. The findings support results from previous studies indicating that clusters of words are more often selected to express chronic pain, and other patterns are used to describe acute pain during the early postoperative period. Also, subjects experienced considerable pain intensity related to arthritis prior to surgery, and they reported less overall pain intensity following their TKR.