Accuracy and reproducibility of a retrospective outcome assessment for lumbar spinal stenosis surgery

作者：Kuittinen Pekka^*; Aalto Timo Juhani; Heikkila Tapani; Leinonen Ville; Savolainen Sakari; Sipola Petri; Kroger Heikki; Turunen Veli; Airaksinen Olavi

来源：BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 2012, 13: 83.

DOI：10.1186/1471-2474-13-83

• Lumbar spinal stenosis
• Surgical treatment
• Outcome measures

Background: Retrospective assessment of surgery outcome is considered problematic. The aims of this study were to evaluate the reproducibility and accuracy of a retrospective outcome assessment of lumbar spinal stenosis surgery with reference to prospective outcome scale measurements. %26lt;br%26gt;Method: Outcome of surgery from 100 lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) patients was evaluated retrospectively from patient files of a 3-month outpatient visit performed according to a standard clinical protocol by two independent researchers. In the retrospective analysis, outcome was graded as 2 = good if the clinical condition had clearly improved, 1 = moderate if it had just slightly improved, 0 = poor if it had not improved or was even worse than before the surgical treatment (Retrospective 3-point scale). A prospectively assessed Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire (ODI), Visual analogue pain scale (VAS) and a patient satisfaction questionnaire were used as references of standards. Reproducibility of the measurements was evaluated. %26lt;br%26gt;Results: The retrospective 3-point scale correlated with ODI (r = 0.528; P %26lt; 0.001) and VAS (r = 0.368; P %26lt; 0.001). The agreement was better in the good and poor outcome than in the moderate outcome. Retrospective 3-point scale demonstrated substantial intra-rater and inter-rater repeatability (kappa = 0.682, P %26lt; 0.001 and. = 0.630, P %26lt; 0.001, respectively). %26lt;br%26gt;Conclusions: Retrospective assessment of spinal surgery outcome is highly reproducible. Accuracy is highest in the patients with poor and good surgical result.

• 出版日期2012-5-29