A new article published in Spinal Deformity examines patient-reported outcomes for adult spinal deformity over the past 10 years.
The researchers examined five top orthopedic journals for clinical studies with adult spinal deformity surgical intervention that had patient-reported outcomes. The studies were published from 2004 to 2013. There were 84 patient-reported studies included in the literature over the study period.
Here are five things to know:
1. There was one study from 2004 and 16 studies in 2013 that met inclusion criteria. There were 24 studies with unique patient-reported outcomes.
2. The most frequently-used single instrument was the Oswestry Disability Index, used in 47.8 percent of the studies. The Scoliosis Research Society-22 was used in 35.6 percent of the studies — the second most frequently used.
3. Twenty-one percent of the studies included the SRS-24 and 13.3 percent of the studies used the Short Form-36. Thirteen percent of the studies also used the visual analog scale.
4. The combined use of both SRS instruments exceeded ODI use.
5. The level of evidence four was most common, used in 42.9 percent of the studies. There weren't any level of evidence one studies.
6. There was incomplete preoperative and postoperative patient-reported outcome scores in many studies, which was the most common inconsistency. There were incomplete scores in:
• ODI: 16 percent
• SRS-24: 58 percent
• SRS-22: 22 percent
7. Only the SF-36 instrument in the top five instruments used is also routinely used for cost-effectiveness studies, which means making procedure cost-outcome decisions is difficult.