Changes of Exhaled Volatile Organic Compounds in Postoperative Patients Undergoing Analgesic Treatment: A Prospective Observational Study

Assessment and treatment of postoperative pain can be challenging as objective examination techniques to detect and quantify pain are lacking. We aimed to investigate changes of exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in patients with postoperative pain before and after treatment with opioid analgesics. In an observational study in 20 postoperative patients, we monitored for postoperative pain, hemodynamic parameters, and catecholamines before and during treatment. VOCs in the patients were determined by direct real-time proton transfer reaction time-of-flight mass spectrometry prior (0 min) and after piritramide application (15 min as well as 30 min). Cardiovascular variables changed and norepinephrine levels decreased during treatment. The VOCs acetonitrile (<0.001), acetaldehyde (p = 0.002), benzopyran (p = 0.004), benzene (p < 0.001), hexenal (p = < 0.001), 1-butanethiol (p = 0.004), methanethiol (p < 0.001), ethanol (p = 0.003), and propanol (p = < 0.001) changed significantly over time. Patients with Numeric Rating Scale (NRS) < 4 showed a significantly lower concentration of hexenal compared to patients with NRS > 4 at the time points 15 min (45.0 vs. 385.3 ncps, p = 0.047) and 30 min (38.3 vs. 334.6 ncps, p = 0.039). Breath analysis can provide additional information for noninvasive monitoring for analgesic treatment in postoperative patients.