What is it about?
The visual analog scale (VAS) is frequently used to measure treatment outcome in patients with cervical spine disorders. The minimum clinically important difference (MCID) is the smallest change in a score that has clinical importance to the patient. In this study we validated the VAS-neck and VAS-arm instruments for the cervical spine (e.g. repeatibility) and computed the MCID with 5 different methods.
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Why is it important?
We use many tools to measure pain in patients in every days work even though they are sparsely validated for this particular field, the cervical spine. One example is the VAS that is frequently used in the preoperative evaluation of spine patients. In other medical fields comprehensive research has established the repeatability and MCID, but for the cervical spine most of this knowledge is missing.
Perspectives
Our study investigates for the first time the MCID in relation to the measurement noise on the 0-100 mm pain VAS in surgically treated neck pain patient. These findings may help clinicians to interpret the treatment results in patients with cervical degenerative disc disease.
Anna MacDowall
Uppsala Universitet
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Validation of the visual analog scale in the cervical spine, Journal of Neurosurgery Spine, December 2017, Journal of Neurosurgery Publishing Group (JNSPG),
DOI: 10.3171/2017.5.spine1732.
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