Clinical trials

The perioperative time, i.e., the time before, during, and directly after surgery, can be stressful for families whose child needs to undergo major orthopedic surgery. Families have expressed their need for more and easily accessible information on what to expect before and after surgery, and how to deal with postoperative pain. Single-session interventions are short interventions, often digital, that are scalable and present as a low-threshold approach for psychoeducational purposes. Previous studies have demonstrated good feasibility and acceptability of single-session interventions for psychosocial problems such as perioperative anxiety among families. Therefore, in this pilot study, the investigators will test a newly developed digital single-session intervention for youth undergoing major orthopedic surgery and their parents. The intervention will provide pain education, general and individual resources, and a special module for parents on how they can best support their children. In this study, the investigators will evaluate if participants use the digital intervention, if they perceive the content as useful and the format as engaging, and whether there are aspects that need to be added or changed.

Chronic postsurgical pain is defined as pain that develops or intensifies following a surgical procedure. After major surgery, around 20% of children and adolescents develop chronic postsurgical pain, and, as part of it, negative consequences on their quality of life. Emotion-related factors such as the variability of emotions, how emotions are regulated, and how well someone is able to differentiate between different emotions have in part been studied in other types of chronic pain. To date, no study examined emotion-related factors in the development and maintenance of chronic postsurgical pain. This observational study includes five assessment time points, one before and four after major surgery, with the goal to identify emotion-related factors that increase or decrease the risk for the development of chronic postsurgical pain.