Journal of craniovertebral junction & spine
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J Craniovertebr Junction Spine · Jul 2017
Is there a correlation between the spinal instability neoplastic score and mechanical pain in patients with metastatic spinal cord compression? A prospective cohort study.
The decision for selecting patients for surgical treatment of metastatic spinal cord compression (MSCC) is challenging even for experienced surgeons. Recently, the spinal instability neoplastic score (SINS) has been proposed to help surgeons in the evaluation of spinal stability in the setting of spinal metastases. This study aimed to evaluate the correlation between SINS and preoperative visual analog scale (VAS), as well as the pre- and post-operative association of the VAS and neurological function. ⋯ The SINS correlates with mechanical pain. Surgery provides a significant improvement in pain and neurological status, especially in patients who presented higher SINS scores and some degree of preoperative neurological function.