Abdul Satar, Muhammad Inam, Mohammad Arif, Mohammad Saeed, Imran Khan Wazir.
Oswestry disability index for the assessment of postoperative disability in spinal trauma.
Isra Med J Jan ;5(4):258-60.

Objective: The objective of this study was to assess functional disability measured with the Oswestry Disability Index in patients with thoracolumbar spine instrumentation. Material and Methods: This descriptive study was performed in Department of Orthopedics and Spine Surgery, Hayatabad Medical Complex Peshawar from July 2007 to June 2012 on 52 consecutive patients of either sex with age above 17 years, have unstable fracture of thoracolumbar spine with intact neurology that has been treated by posterior spinal fixation with pedicular screws and rods. Using Oswestry Disability Index questionnaire which assess the functional disability the data was collected by a proforma and analyzed with SPSS version 10. Results: There were total 52 patients. Male patients were 35 (67.3%) while female were 17 (32.7%). Minimum age was 18 years, maximum 75 while average age was 35.90. The Oswestry disability index was grade D in 24(46.2%) patients and grade E in 28(53.8%) patients preoperatively. Postoperatively at six months the index was grade A in 33(63.5%) patients, grade B in 15(28.8%) and grade C in 4(7.7%) patients while minimum Oswestry disability index was 10%, maximum 56% and average was 22.76. Conclusion: Our study shows improved results based on Oswestry Disability Index, in patients with fracture of thoracolumber spine undergoing posterior spinal fixation with pedicular screws and rod. Our findings also document the effectiveness of surgical techniques that has been done, suggesting that a bed bound or crippled patient was enabled almost to live independently.

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