Pain in a Swedish spinal cord injury population.
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.


METHODS
Spinalis SCI Unit (outpatient clinic), Stockholm, Sweden.


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


METHODS
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.


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Norrbrink Budh
Cecilia
C
Spinalis SCI unit, Karolinska Hospital and Faculty of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. cecilia.budh@spinalis.se
Lund
Iréne
I
Ertzgaard
Per
P
Holtz
Anders
A
Hultling
Claes
C
Levi
Richard
R
Werhagen
Lars
L
Lundeberg
Thomas
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000145:classification / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D010147:Pain Measurement; D015995:Prevalence; D012042:Registries; D013119:Spinal Cord Injuries / Q000145:classification / Q000150:complications*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology