A bad break: mechanisms and assessment of acute and chronic pain after bone fracture.

Abstract

Pain is one of the primary indicators of a bone fracture and serves both a functional and practical role in guiding recovery. However, fracture pain can persist long after the fracture itself has clinically healed. The neural and molecular mechanisms that drive acute pain postfracture, and how these mechanisms are pathologically usurped to trap patients into persistent, debilitating, and often difficult to treat, chronic pain, are not well understood. The aim of this review is to provide insight into the risk factors for pain persistence after fracture, review the physiological and pathophysiological mechanisms of fracture pain, and critically evaluate the literature around fracture pain assessment techniques/models. Taken together, the concepts covered herein will provide a strong foundation to support the development of more effective treatments to better alleviate postfracture pain.