• Matthew C Mauck, Chloe E Barton, Andrew S Tungate, Jeffrey W Shupp, Rachel Karlnoski, David J Smith, Felicia N Williams, Samuel W Jones, Christopher Sefton, Kyle McGrath, Bruce A Cairns, and Samuel A McLean.
• Institute for Trauma Recovery.
• J Burn Care Res. 2021 Apr 25.

AbstractChronic pain is a significant co-morbidity of burn injury affecting up to 60% of survivors. Currently, no treatments are available to prevent chronic pain after burn injury. Accumulating evidence suggests that omega-3 fatty acids (O3FA) improve symptoms across a range of painful conditions. In this study, we evaluated whether low peritraumatic levels of O3FA predicts greater pain severity during the year after burn injury. Burn survivors undergoing skin autograft were recruited from three participating burn centers. Plasma O3FA (n=77) levels were assessed in the early aftermath of burn injury using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry and pain severity was assessed via the 0-10 numeric rating scale for 1 year following burn injury. Repeated-measures linear regression analyses were used to evaluate the association between peritraumatic O3FA concentrations and pain severity during the year following burn injury. Peritraumatic O3FA concentration and chronic pain severity were inversely related; lower levels of peritraumatic O3FA predicted worse pain outcomes (β=-.002, p=.020). Future studies are needed to evaluate biological mechanisms mediating this association and to assess the ability of O3FA to prevent chronic pain following burn injury.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Burn Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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