Simplifying the Assessment of Activity Limitations of Patients with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome 1 of the Upper Extremity by Using the Visual Analog Scale

Abstract

Objective

Instruments such as the Radboud Skills Questionnaire [RASQ] and the Disability of Arm Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire [DASH] are not commonly used in general practice because they take too much time to complete. By assessing the concurrent validity, we examined whether the Visual Analog Scale [VAS] could serve as an alternative simple proxy to measure functional limitations in patients suffering from complex regional pain syndrome 1 [CRPS 1] of the upper extremities.

Methods

We asked patients afflicted with CRPS 1 of the upper extremities to indicate their functional limitations on the VAS and assessed the concurrent validity by comparing the results with the scores from the RASQ and the DASH.

Results

Fifty-seven patients [37 females] with a median disease duration of 1.9 years [interquartile ranges 0.9–4.3] were included. Self-perceived activity limitations on the VAS were 5.4 ± 2.2. Average score for the RASQ was 140.1 ± 39.2 and for the DASH 64.3 ± 17.3. We found a good correlation between the VAS and the RASQ [R² = 0.57], and the DASH [R² = 0.64].

Conclusions

The VAS may serve as a simple proxy to assess functional limitations in patients suffering from CRPS 1 of the upper extremities. However, it may only be used as an add-on to valid instruments in clinical practice and should not replace established and validated assessments.

Keywords:

• Complex regional pain syndrome 1
• Visual Analog Scale
• Radboud Skills Questionnaire
• Disability of Arm
• Shoulder and Hand Questionnaire
• activity limitations

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the TREND consortium for the collaboration. We are indebted to the Wolfermann-Nägeli Foundation and the Paul Schiller Foundation in Zurich, Switzerland, for the generous financial support.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.