Longitudinal Trajectories and Risk Factors for Post-traumatic Chronic Pain and Pruritus Following Burn Injuries: a Prospective Multicenter Cohort Study.

Authors

Felix J Klimitz, Hubert Neubauer, Annette Stolle, Stav Brown, Hans Ziegenthaler, Adriana C Panayi, Martin Aman, Gabriel Hundeshagen, Ulrich Kneser, Leila Harhaus-Waehner

Published in

Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation. Oct 31, 2026. Epub Oct 31, 2026.

Abstract

To characterize the longitudinal course and identify predictors of chronic pain and pruritus following burn injury.
Prospective multicenter cohort study.
Specialized inpatient burn rehabilitation centers.
A total of 103 adult burn survivors undergoing burn-specific inpatient rehabilitation.
burn-specific inpatient rehabilitation.
Pain at rest and pain on exertion were assessed using Numeric Rating Scales (NRS), whereas joint pain and pruritus were recorded as present or absent, at admission, discharge, and 3- and 12-month follow-up. Clinically significant pain was defined as NRS ≥4.
At admission, 17.5% of patients reported clinically significant pain at rest, 49.5% pain on exertion, 40.0% joint pain, and 68.0% pruritus. At 12 months, prevalence decreased to 14.1%, 30.4%, 34.8%, and 51.1%, respectively. Baseline post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were independently associated with higher odds of pain at rest (OR 23.8, 95% CI 3.58-347.0), pain on exertion (OR 10.5, 95% CI 3.56-36.7), joint pain (OR 12.9, 95% CI 4.24-47.3), and pruritus (OR 4.36, 95% CI 1.67-12.2). All associations remained significant after correction for multiple testing. Across time points, PTSD was associated with increased joint pain (risk difference +28.96%, 95% CI 19.64%-38.29%) and pruritus (+9.7%, 95% CI 0.4%-19.1%).
Chronic pain and pruritus remain common one year after burn injury despite structured rehabilitation. PTSD was consistently associated with greater symptom burden, supporting the need for integrated psychological and somatic rehabilitation strategies.

PMID:
42966589
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 01 Nov 2026.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.