In spine injury pain is the overwhelming indicator for treatment. Despite of its widespread prevalence, objective data assessing the pain and the results of various forms of treatment are largely lacking in Korea. In order to compare the value of
different types of treatment, it is necessary to develop standardized and meaningful forms of assessment.
Thirty-nine patients with a diagnosis of spinal stenosis, spondylolisthesis or herniated disc entered the study. Mean age was 48 ranged from 24 to 71. An initial questionnaire was developed by adoption of the Million's Pain Score. Each question
was
answered by patients, marking on a Visual Analogue Scale and repeated one hour later. Statistical analysis using SPSS (V3.2) was performed for reproducibility of the questionnaire. The questions shown unsatisfactory degree of agreement (a
correlation
less than 0.7) were replaced with new questions seeking similar information but designed to produce less confusion than its predecessor. The revised questionnaires were asked and analyzed in same manner as the previous procedure.
With initial questionnaire, the mean scores did not show significant difference between the answers of the first visit and the second. The overall degree of agreement was 0.7720. Questions 4. 5. 6 and 12, however, showed unsatisfactory degree of
agreement. With revised questionnaire, the mean scores had no significant difference between the answers of the first visit and the second. The overall degree of agreement was improved to 0.8878. All questions showed satisfactory degree of
agreement.
This questionnaire is thought to be helpful to assess patient's subjective symptoms, and analyze and compare the results of various forms of treatments. Although satisfactory, there is still room for some further improvement.
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