Pain in a Swedish spinal cord injury population

Abstract

Objective: To describe pain and associated variables in a prevalence group of persons with a sustained spinal cord injury (SCI) in the Swedish capital and its surroundings.

Setting: Spinalis SCI Unit (outpatient clinic), Stockholm, Sweden.

Design: Assessment over a 12-month period in a yearly health control.

Subjects: Four hundred and fifty-six SCI patients.

Results: Two hundred and ninety-one out of 456 SCI patients (63.7%) suffered from pain, and in 45.7% of these it was classified as being neurogenic. Aching pain was the most used descriptor (38.5%). The onset of pain was commonly within three months (73.5%). In 70.4% of patients pain occurred below the level of the lesion. Most patients identified pain as coming from one (55.0%) or two (28.2%) body regions. Rating of the general pain intensity on a visual analogue scale (VAS) was 46 out of 100 and rating of the worst pain intensity was 78 out of 100. Ninety-four out of 276 patients (32.3%) considered that their quality of life was significantly affected by pain.

Conclusion: Pain was most common in patients with incomplete lesions (ASIA impairment grade D) and there was a correlation between pain and higher mean age at injury and between pain and female gender.