Objective To investigate the correlation between pain sensitivity and acute postoperative pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor surgery. Methods Fifty patients of either sex, aged≥18 years, with American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) gradeⅠ-Ⅱ, who were scheduled for laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor surgery under general anesthesia were divided into high sensitivity group (pain sensitivity questionnaire ［PSQ］ score≥5.0, n＝19) and low sensitivity group (PSQ score＜5.0, n＝31). The general conditions, operation conditions, the number of analgesic pump compressions and the number of salvage analgesia within 24 h after surgery, and the complications such as nausea, vomiting, drowsiness, and abdominal distension of the 2 groups were recorded. Visual analogue scale (VAS) score was used to evaluate the pain degree of patients during peripheral venous catheterization and within 24 h after surgery. Results There were no significant differences in age, gender, ASA grade, body mass index, operation duration, recovery time, extubation time, number of analgesic pump compressions within 24 h after surgery, or postoperative complications between the 2 groups (all P＞0.05). Compared with the low sensitivity group, the VAS scores of the high sensitivity group were significantly higher during peripheral venous catheterization, immediately after waking, 1 h and 2 h after surgery (all P＜0.05). The preoperative PSQ score was positively correlated with the VAS score of peripheral venous catheterization (r＝0.693, P＜0.05), and was positively correlated with the VAS scores immediately after waking, 1 h and 2 h after surgery (r＝0.917, 0.901 and 0.841, all P＜0.05). The number of salvage analgesia in the high sensitivity group was significantly higher than that in the low sensitivity group (P＜0.05). The preoperative PSQ score was used as the test variable, and the occurrence of acute postoperative pain was used as the state variable to plot the receiver operating characteristic curve. The area under curve value was 0.909. The optimal cut-off value of PSQ score calculated by Jorden index was 4.85, suggesting that the PSQ score could predict the acute postoperative pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor surgery. Conclusion Pain sensitivity is associated with acute postoperative pain in patients undergoing laparoscopic gastrointestinal tumor surgery, and it may be a predictor of acute postoperative pain. Patients with PSQ≥4.85 are more likely to develop acute postoperative pain.