Introduction:Central Sensitization (CS) is anaugmented responsiveness of nociceptive neurons usually associate with disproportional pain perception. Frequently subjects with CS undergo orthopedic surgery and it seems reasonable to assume that surgical outcomes could be affected by CS. A systematic review of the current literature had been conducted to evaluate the influence of CS in post-surgical outcomes after orthopedic surgery of lower limb.

Material and Methods:MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) and PEDRO were researched from March 25th to April 25th 2020.

The outcome measures considered were mostly the Central Sensitization Inventory (CSI), Pressure pain threshold (PPT) and Quality of Life (QoL).

Results: From the research string 1047 articles had been found. After selection, only 7 articles had been included in the systematic review. 5 studies considered knee surgery, 1 study hip and 1 study hip and knee.

Discussion: The studies show that CS is related to worse post-operative outcomes after lower limb surgery. Patients with preoperative CS have worse quality of life, pain perception and post-surgery dissatisfaction than patient without CS. 

Conclusion:  The results show the importance of prognostic variable as CS before orthopedic surgery of lower limb. CS evaluation could be useful before undergoing surgery to improve orthopedic and rehabilitation intervention.

Giulia Zanotti is a Senior Physiotherapist graduate in 2013 from University of Easter Piedmont, Italy. She has a post graduated Master in orthopedic and musculoskeletal rehabilitation (University of Pavia, Italy, 2015) and a post graduate Master in cardiac rehabilitation (University of Pavia, Italy, 2018). She is currently attending a MSc in Applied Neuroscience (Kings College of London, UK).

She was previously working as researcher, senior physiotherapist and adjunct professor at Humanitas University and Humanitas Clinical Hospital (Milan , Italy). She is currently working in Dr Sulaiman Al Habib Hospital (Khobar, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia). 

Her previous publications were focus on orthopedic rehabilitation (THA and TKR), gait analysis and inertial sensors (h index 2).