Medical and scientific acronyms appear frequently in the abstract of the study. In general, they're important, but for most people they mean nothing if they're not unpacked and explained. The following text is provided for your reference as we've included a description of two of the observations utilized in measuring the outcomes that were mentioned in the study. To fully grasp the results of the study, read through them in order. The spine surgeons who are experienced are here to help you with the interpretation.
Oswestry Disability Index
The ODI is a widely-used questionnaire by clinicians and researchers that can be used to quantify disability in patients with low back pain. The Standardization of Assessment of Quality of Life and Disability (SQUID) is considered the gold standard for measuring the degree of disability and estimating quality of life in people with low back pain.
The ODI questionnaire is completed by the patient and consists of topics such as the intensity of pain, whether or not the patient can lift things, whether or not the patient can care for themselves, how far the patient can walk, whether or not the patient can sit, their sexual life, their sleep quality, and whether or not they can get around.
To help aid patient diagnosis, the following topics are followed by six statements and the patient checks the box for the statement that they believe they are currently experiencing. In order to assess the index, the participants were given a score between zero and one hundred, with zero meaning no disability and one hundred meaning the maximum possible disability.
Visual Analog Scale:
This is a psychometric response scale that can be found in questionnaires of patients who are going through pain. Measuring subjective characteristics or attitudes that cannot otherwise be measured, this is an instrument of measurement. You're probably used to seeing a pain scale because that is a very scientific way of describing something you've likely already encountered. As clinicians, we are concerned with accurately measuring patient pain because it is very personal and unique to each individual. This visual scale quantifies the severity of pain by representing it as 0, 5, and 10 on the scale.
Here are the results of this award-winning study, which are much simpler to understand if you stick with me after the session is over.
Once again, when it comes to predicting recovery following CMI Spinal Surgery for ASD, little research has been done. We undertook to discover both clinical and radiological determinants of the best and worst surgical outcomes for people with ASD. Our only goal in doing this was to better enable people with spinal deformity to make treatment decisions based on research.
Only patients with a documented two-year ODI were included in this single-center study. A total of 44 patients were found, let's see what we found:
Of the 10 patients with the best prognoses, 0 developed pseudoarthrosis (failures of bone to fuse or knit together) and the 10 with the worst prognoses had 4 occurrences.
Before surgery, the 10 best patients had significantly lower ODI (objective measure) and lower VAS (subjective measure) than the 10 worst patients. After surgery, the 10 best patients had significantly lower ODI (objective measure) and less surgical complications (subjective measure) than the 10 worst patients. They also had a lower incidence of post - operative pseudoarthrosis (subjective measure).
The vast majority of patients in the “worst outcome” group had their procedure done prior to 2011.
More information is available at Neuroscience Specialist in OKC. If you wish to know more about minimally invasive surgery, talk to our expert spine surgeons by visiting our office.
**Disclaimer- Information presented here is not intended to be qualified medical advice. Nothing expressed herein creates a doctor-patient relationship.