PMID- 23826290 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20140204 LR - 20220331 IS - 1932-6203 (Electronic) IS - 1932-6203 (Linking) VI - 8 IP - 6 DP - 2013 TI - Measuring surgical outcomes in cervical spondylotic myelopathy patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion: assessment of minimum clinically important difference. PG - e67408 LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0067408 [doi] LID - e67408 AB - OBJECT: The concept of minimum clinically important difference (MCID) has been used to measure the threshold by which the effect of a specific treatment can be considered clinically meaningful. MCID has previously been studied in surgical patients, however few studies have assessed its role in spinal surgery. The goal of this study was to assess the role of MCID in patients undergoing anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) for cervical spondylotic myelopathy (CSM). METHODS: Data was collected on 30 patients who underwent ACDF for CSM between 2007 and 2012. Preoperative and 1-year postoperative Neck Disability Index (NDI), Visual-Analog Scale (VAS), and Short Form-36 (SF-36) Physical (PCS) and Mental (MCS) Component Summary PRO scores were collected. Five distribution- and anchor-based approaches were used to calculate MCID threshold values average change, change difference, receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC), minimum detectable change (MDC) and standard error of measurement (SEM). The Health Transition Item of the SF-36 (HTI) was used as an external anchor. RESULTS: Patients had a significant improvement in all mean physical PRO scores postoperatively (p<0.01) NDI (29.24 to 14.82), VAS (5.06 to 1.72), and PCS (36.98 to 44.22). The five MCID approaches yielded a range of values for each PRO: 2.00-8.78 for PCS, 2.06-5.73 for MCS, 4.83-13.39 for NDI, and 0.36-3.11 for VAS. PCS was the most representative PRO measure, presenting the greatest area under the ROC curve (0.94). MDC values were not affected by the choice of anchor and their threshold of improvement was statistically greater than the chance of error from unimproved patients. CONCLUSION: SF-36 PCS was the most representative PRO measure. MDC appears to be the most appropriate MCID method. When MDC was applied together with HTI anchor, the MCID thresholds were: 13.39 for NDI, 3.11 for VAS, 5.56 for PCS and 5.73 for MCS. FAU - Auffinger, Brenda M AU - Auffinger BM AD - The University of Chicago, Section of Neurological Surgery, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. FAU - Lall, Rishi R AU - Lall RR FAU - Dahdaleh, Nader S AU - Dahdaleh NS FAU - Wong, Albert P AU - Wong AP FAU - Lam, Sandi K AU - Lam SK FAU - Koski, Tyler AU - Koski T FAU - Fessler, Richard G AU - Fessler RG FAU - Smith, Zachary A AU - Smith ZA LA - eng PT - Journal Article PT - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't DEP - 20130624 PL - United States TA - PLoS One JT - PloS one JID - 101285081 SB - IM MH - Cervical Vertebrae/*surgery MH - Diskectomy/*methods MH - Female MH - Humans MH - Male MH - Middle Aged MH - ROC Curve MH - Spinal Fusion/*methods MH - Spondylosis/*surgery MH - Treatment Outcome MH - Visual Analog Scale PMC - PMC3691175 COIS- Competing Interests: RF receives educational grant support from Medtronic, Stryker and Depuy for research on spinal techniques. Additionally he serves as a paid consultant for Lanx Inc for development of spinal surgery products. This does not alter the authors' adherence to all the PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. EDAT- 2013/07/05 06:00 MHDA- 2014/02/05 06:00 PMCR- 2013/06/24 CRDT- 2013/07/05 06:00 PHST- 2013/03/20 00:00 [received] PHST- 2013/05/17 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2013/07/05 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2013/07/05 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2014/02/05 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2013/06/24 00:00 [pmc-release] AID - PONE-D-13-11535 [pii] AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0067408 [doi] PST - epublish SO - PLoS One. 2013 Jun 24;8(6):e67408. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067408. Print 2013.