title: Low back pain does not improve with surgical treatment of pelvic organ prolapse.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our goal was to determine if there is a correlation between low back pain (LBP) and pelvic organ prolapse (POP) by assessing for change in LBP after surgical correction of prolapse.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients undergoing POP surgery were recruited to participate. They completed the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), a validated back pain questionnaire, at their preoperative and postoperative visits at 1, 3, and 6 months. A higher ODI score (0-100) represents more severe disability. A 9-point change represents a minimal clinically important difference (MCID). The primary outcome was the change in ODI scores from preoperative to 3 months postoperative. We analyzed ODI scores with repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA). Power analysis showed that a sample size of 50 was needed for 88 % power to resolve a MCID on ODI.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 51 patients were recruited and 43 (84 %), 34 (67 %), and 36 (71 %) completed the 1-, 3-, and 6-month follow-up, respectively. The mean ODI scores at the preoperative and the 1-, 3-, and 6-month postoperative visits were 15, 19, 9, and 9. The mean ODI score from preoperative to 3 months postoperative improved by 5 points [confidence interval (CI) -9.2 to -0.5, p = 0.03]. Of the participants 7 (20.6 %, CI 11-35 %) experienced a MCID improvement, 24 (70.6 %, CI 56-83 %) reported no substantial change, and 3 (8.8 %, CI 3-20 %) experienced a MCID worsening.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study found a statistically significant but not clinically significant improvement of LBP after surgical repair of prolapse.
authors.affiliation: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA 02114, USA. tlau1@partners.org
authors.forename: Trevin
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lau
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Weinstein
authors.forename: May
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wakamatsu
authors.forename: Eric A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Macklin
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pulliam
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017116:Low Back Pain / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D056887:Pelvic Organ Prolapse / Q000150:complications* / Q000601:surgery*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome