.In Germany, nearly 16 million surgical procedures were carried out on an inpatient basis in 2022. Despite rapid medical advances in recent decades, at least one third of patients suffer from severe post-operative pain. This inadequate treatment not only directly impairs recovery after surgery, but also has short- and long-term negative consequences, such as prolonged hospital stays, delayed return to work and the chronicity of pain. This increases follow-on costs and significantly reduces quality of life. Regional analgesia offers the greatest potential for effectively relieving pain following major surgery, as it interrupts the transmission of pain signals to the brain by administering medication locally directly to the relevant nerves. The complexity of personalised pain management is the reason why, despite the availability of treatment options, a large proportion of patients continue to suffer from unacceptable pain following surgery.
As an example of all available pain management methods, pAIn-awAI utilises treatment data from over 100,000 patients undergoing catheter-based epidural anaesthesia to describe customisable treatment components. Based on this data, clinical rules are defined which enable the development of a prototype AI-based simulation tool for individually optimised pain management. To this end, neurosymbolic models are being developed that combine symbolic and subsymbolic methods. One of the greatest hurdles to using AI-based treatment recommendations in clinical practice is their traceability. A particular focus will therefore be on using neurosymbolic AI to ensure the traceability of the established rules, in order to improve the acceptance of AI-based treatment recommendations in clinical practice. With more than 5 million patients across Germany each year suffering from inadequately treated pain, there is enormous potential to prevent complications and the chronicity of pain, to accelerate recovery and to reduce healthcare costs.
Partners
Universität des Saarlandes, Lehrstuhl für Anästhesiologie, Intensiv-, Notfallmedizin und Schmerztherapie
