Some of the most frequently used tools in the field of spinal surgery are the Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and the Roland & Morris Disability Questionnaire. Moreover, disability is seen as a major indicator for the severity of a pain condition and several tools have been developed to assess the pain-related disability. High intercorrelations between pain-intensity measures and pain-related disability measures support the concept of using them as a unitary construct of pain severity. It was found that these two aspects of pain severity may form a bidimensional or a one-dimensional scale depending on the specific instruments tested. This contains the pain-related interference with activities (disability) and the intensity of pain. There are several aspects that define pain and its effects : However, when gathering and interpreting such data, one has to keep in mind some important findings of research in this area.
Pre- and postoperative assessment of pain and pain relief often serves to evaluate the effectiveness of a specific therapy. Back pain is one of the most frequent reasons for spinal surgery and therefore, pain relieving is one of the major aims to be achieved while operating on spine patients.
