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The aim is to find a simple indicator of the risk of developing chronic post-surgical pain, so that it can be used and applied. The factor studied was the patient’s perceived state of health prior to surgery.Material and methodWe included 90 patients awaiting total hip replacement or total knee replacement (45/45). They were asked about their perceived state of health before surgery and their level of pain after surgery. If there is a strong relationship between poor perceived health status and significant pain 4 months postoperatively, then perceived health status can be taken as a predictor of chronic pain.ResultsPreoperative health status, assessed on a scale of 0 to 10, averaged 5.9 in patients with severe chronic pain after surgery, and 6.6 in patients who did not develop chronic pain postoperatively. However, this difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.18).ConclusionBased on the data from the present study, we cannot conclude that there is an association between perceived preoperative health and the chronicity of postoperative pain. The overall health indicator cannot be used as a predictive factor, but indicates a trend confirmed by another study.