Chronic pain management in the surgical patient.

Managing surgical patients who have chronic pain that results from their surgical disease and its treatment can bring a new and rewarding dimension to surgical practice. Patients appreciate their surgeon's continued interest and involvement with them, and the surgeon can overcome a sense of abandonment that may accompany the discharge of a patient who is not healed fully. Patients who have chronic pain often understand that their pain will not disappear. That their surgeon will not disappear can help them to accept and live with their pain.