NUMERICAL RATING SCALE AS A PREDICTOR OF AN UNDERLYING PATHOLOGY IN PEDIATRIC BACK PAIN USING MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGE AS DIAGNOSTIC TOOL

• Published in: Orthopaedic journal of sports medicine 2021-07, Vol.9 (7_suppl3)
• Main Authors: Lindsay, Eduardo A., Olivella, Gerardo, Rodríguez, Manuel, Burgos-Rossy, Edwin, Torres-Acevedo, Natalia, Ramírez-Roggio, Daniela, Iriarte, Iván, Ramírez, Norman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Back pain; Medical diagnosis; Orthopedics; Pathology; Pediatrics; Sports medicine
• ISSN: 2325-9671; 2325-9671
• DOI: 10.1177/2325967121S00043

Background & Objectives: Recently, constant and night pain has been discarded as adequate clinical markers to predict the presence of an underlying pathology in pediatric back pain. The pain intensity has been recognized as an important domain in the pain assessment. Numerical Rating Scale (NRS) is one of the most common validated tools to assess pediatric pain intensity in children above 8 years of age. The aim of this study is to assess NRS as a predictor of underlying pathologies found by magnetic resonance image (MRI) in pediatric back pain. We hypothesize that a higher NRS score is associated with a high sensitivity, specificity and likelihood ratio to identify the present of organic pathology in pediatric chronic back pain. Methodology: After obtaining Institutional Review Board approval, a retrospective electronical medical record review was conducted. All pediatric patients who reported back pain lasting > 4 weeks between 2009 to 2018 were enrolled in the study. As per regular protocol, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon evaluated all patients who presented with back pain. After a non-diagnostic history, physical examination and spinal x-ray; spine MRI was order. Pain was graded with the use of NRS from 0 to 10. Patients were divided in two groups: NRS (1-5) & NRS (6-10). Variables such as gender, age, pain frequency, night pain, neurological exam, and the presence of an underlying pathology were compared between both groups. Patients that presented with injury due to trauma, previous diagnosis of back pain or cervical pain were excluded. Results: A total of 467 patients were evaluated in the study. Mean age of subjects was 15 years; 69% being female. An underlying pathology was identified in 131/315 (41.6%) patients with NRS (6-10), and 55/152 (36.2%) patients with NRS (1-5) (P=0.27). Patients with NRS (6-10) had two times more probability of suffering constant pain (P