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. 2018 May;8(3):231-236.
doi: 10.1177/2192568217706700. Epub 2017 May 31.

Immediate Postoperative Pain Scores Predict Neck Pain Profile up to 1 Year Following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion

Owoicho Adogwa  1 , Aladine A Elsamadicy  2 , Victoria D Vuong  1 , Ankit I Mehta  3 , Raul A Vasquez  4 , Joseph Cheng  5 , Carlos A Bagley  6 , Isaac O Karikari  2
Affiliations

Immediate Postoperative Pain Scores Predict Neck Pain Profile up to 1 Year Following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion

Owoicho Adogwa et al. Global Spine J. 2018 May.

Abstract

Study design: Retrospective cohort review.

Objective: To assess whether immediate postoperative neck pain scores accurately predict 12-month visual analog scale-neck pain (VAS-NP) outcomes following Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion surgery (ACDF).

Methods: This was a retrospective study of 82 patients undergoing elective ACDF surgery at a major academic medical center. Patient reported outcomes measures VAS-NP scores were recorded on the first postoperative day, then at 6-weeks, 3, 6, and 12-months after surgery. Multivariate correlation and logistic regression methods were utilized to determine whether immediate postoperative VAS-NP score accurately predicted 1-year patient reported VAS-NP Scores.

Results: Overall, 46.3% male, 25.6% were smokers, and the mean age and body mass index (BMI) were 53.7 years and 28.28 kg/m2, respectively. There were significant correlations between immediate postoperative pain scores and neck pain scores at 6 weeks VAS-NP (P = .0015), 6 months VAS-NP (P = .0333), and 12 months VAS-NP (P = .0247) after surgery. Furthermore, immediate postoperative pain score is an independent predictor of 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year VAS-NP scores.

Conclusion: Our study suggests that immediate postoperative patient reported neck pain scores accurately predicts and correlates with 12-month VAS-NP scores after an ACDF procedure. Patients with high neck pain scores after surgery are more likely to report persistent neck pain 12 months after index surgery.

Keywords: ACDF; VAS-NP; anterior cervical discectomy and fusion; neck pain; pain score; patient-reported outcomes; spine surgery.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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