PainRelief.com Interview with:
Michael P. Jankowski, PhD
Theodore W. Striker, MD Chair in Anesthesia Research
Professor and Director of Research
Department of Anesthesia, Division of Pain Management
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

PainRelief.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: It is estimated that chronic pain can affect up to 20% of children undergoing surgery.  We know that alterations in sensory input during critical periods of development can have lasting effects on normal sensory processing later in life.  The developing peripheral nervous system undergoes substantial changes in function during the neonatal period as it receives information from the external environment.  Injuries, including surgery, that occur during this early developmental window can change the way a patient responds to re-injury in adolescence and young adulthood, a phenomenon called neonatal nociceptive priming. 

         At the same neonatal time, the immune system is also developing and responding to changes in the body.  Surgery is known to cause an immune response that is normally activated to facilitate wound healing and regulate acute pain so that the tissues can undergo proper repair after damage.  However, it was not clear how early life surgery could affect the developing immune system to influence pain responses later in life. 

         Since we knew that one particular type of immune cell, the macrophage (which regulates inflammation and tissue repair in addition to acute pain), can play a role in long term responses to surgery, we investigated how this cell type may play a role in the transition from acute post-surgical pain in neonates to prolonged responses to reinjury later in adolescence.