Selected correlates of the physical health of patients undergoing spinal decompression procedures due to tumour infiltration

Introduction:
An assessment of selected correlates of the functional status of patients undergoing surgery for spinal metastases from malignant tumours.

Material and methods:
The study group (115 patients) accounted for 38.33% of all patients with cancer metastases to the axial skeleton treated at a purposively selected specialist institution within the Podkarpackie region. The study lasted 22 months. The first stage of the study was conducted between the first and second day after hospital admission, before surgery, and the second stage 3–4 months after surgery. A diagnostic survey and estimation method was used. Research tools such as the American Spinal Injury Association (ASIA) Impairment Scale, the Katz scale (activities of daily living – ADL), the visual analogue scale, and the Rotterdam symptom checklist were used. Statistical analysis was performed using the STATISTICA 13 package. A significance level of a = 0.05 (p < 0.05) was adopted.

Results:
Neurological dysfunctions before the procedure predisposed to pain (p = 0.0436). The level of pain before the procedure was higher in patients with incomplete damage: (ASIA C) and (ASIA D). In terms of physical and mental symptoms and activity level, higher values of measured variables were demonstrated after surgery (p < 0.0001). Pain intensity (p > 0.05) was not shown to differentiate the performance of basic ADL.

Conclusions:
Pain is the best-studied symptom experienced by people with musculoskeletal dysfunction in the course of cancer. Reducing pain predisposes to improved functionality, thus improving patients’ physical activity, positively determining the subjective assessment of the quality of life.