Development and Improvement of an Acceptance and Commitment-based Treatment for the Prevention of Chronic Pain After Total Knee Arthroplasty

Reducing the incidence of chronic post-surgical pain after Total Knee Arthroplasty (TKA) is paramount. NOPAIN, a technology-enhanced Acceptance and Commitment-based treatment, will be developed, tested and improved for this purpose. The feasibility of NOPAIN will be evaluated in a small sample of patients listed for TKA at the IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano. Potential pre-surgical and post-surgical predictors of non-response to treatment will be measured and tested using a machine learning algorithm. The results of this study will be employed to improve the content of NOPAIN or for identification of criteria for patient selection. Finally, a randomized controlled clinical trial will be performed. Patients listed for TKA will be randomized to Treatment As Usual (TAU) or to NOPAIN+TAU. Primary outcome will be time to complete pain relief, secondary outcomes will include subjective and objective measurements of quality of life and functional recovery.