Predictive Value of Preoperative Short Form-36 Survey Scale for Postoperative Axial Neck Pain in Patients With Degenerative Cervical Myelopathy

Study Design: Prospective observational study.Objective: To evaluate the predictive value of the preoperative Short Form-36 survey (SF-36) scale for postoperative axial neck pain (ANP) in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) who underwent anterior cervical decompression and fusion (ACDF) surgery.Methods: This study enrolled patients with DCM who underwent ACDF surgery at author's Hospital between May 2010 and June 2016.Results: Out of 126 eligible patients, 122 completed the 3-month follow-up and 117 completed the 1-year follow-up. The results showed that the preoperative social functioning (SF) subscale score of the SF-36 scale was significantly lower in patients with moderate-to-severe postoperative ANP than in those with no or mild postoperative ANP at both follow-up timepoints (P < .05). ACDF at C4-5 level resulted in a higher ANP rate than ACDF at C5-6 or C6-7 level, both at 3-month (P = .019) and 1-year (P = .004) follow-up. Multivariate logistic regression analysis confirmed that the preoperative social functioning subscale score was an independent risk factor for moderate-to-severe postoperative ANP at 3 months and 1 year after surgery, and preoperative NRS was an independent risk factor at 1-year follow-up. No other demographic, clinical, or radiographic factors were found to be associated with postoperative ANP severity (P < .05).Conclusions: Preoperative social functioning subscale score of SF-36 scale might be a favorable predictive tool for postoperative ANP in DCM patients who underwent ACDF surgery.