Abstract

Aim: To create and validate a new assessment tool (Ioannina Functional Scale) for the postoperative evaluation of patients with brachial plexus palsy.

Methods: The study included 57 patients who suffering lesion to the brachial plexus and had undergone surgery at the Orthopaedic Clinic at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ioannina. All procedures were led by the same surgeon (M.D.V.) The collection of data for the research was carried out by reviewing patients’ files, interviewing patients and retrieving information from their physiotherapists. In all cases, written consent was obtained from the patients. Previous assessments tools for evaluating upper extremity function like the Disabilities of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (D.A.S.H.), the Pain Visual Analogue Scale (P.V.A.S.) and the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (I.C.F.) constituted the baseline of our comparison. Multiple statistical methods were used to establish the validity and reliability of the I.F.S. Pearson’s and Spearman’s tests were used for validation, Cronbach’s alpha procedure for reliability, and Shapiro-Wilk for normality.

Results: Mean value of index for the I.F.S. was 49.81. A positive and very strong linear correlation between I.F.S. and D.A.S.H. indexes was documented. Distribution of the I.F.S. was found to be normal. Correlation between I.F.S. and P.V.A.S. were statistically significant with p = 0.000.

Conclusion: Based on the reliability and validity tests carried out in the present study, the Ioannina Functional Scale was found to be a useful assessment tool for evaluating the postoperative progress in patients with brachial plexus injury.

Keywords: Magdalini S Stamou, Laboratory Teaching Stuff, Physiotherapy Department, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece.

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Citation

Citation: Magdalini S Stamou., et al. “Assessment of Postoperative Functional Outcome Following Brachial Plexus Palsy: Development and Validation of the Ioannina Functional Scale". Acta Scientific Orthopaedics 3.6 (2020): 28-35.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2020 Magdalini S Stamou., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.