The research work that constitutes this PhD thesis had two general aims: to study the epidemiology of CPPCS, namely, its incidence and the existence of predictive factors; and to study CPPCS' clinical properties, namely, pain intensity, pain interference and patients' HRQL, temporal evaluation, location and the presence of Neuropathic Pain (NP). With the view to achieve these general aims, we have proposed to conduct two studies: an observational prospective study in patients submitted to CS, in one of the reference centres of CS in Portugal, to evaluate the incidence of CPP and its clinical properties (Paper A); and a systematic review of the literature about CPPCS' incidence, intensity, location and the presence of NP (Paper B).