Quality of life in adult intradural primary spinal tumors: 36-Item Short Form Health Survey correlation with McCormick and Aminoff-Logue scales.

Object: The most appropriate method to determine the quality of life of patients with intradural primary spinal tumors (IPSTs) is not still well established.

Methods: Clinical data in 234 patients who underwent surgery for intradural spinal disease were collected prospectively. The 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36), a generic score scale, was administered to 148 patients with IPSTs to demonstrate if the survey can be used to effectively evaluate these patients. Forty-eight patients were excluded because they did not complete the protocol. The study was finally conducted with 100 patients (45 male and 55 female) with IPSTs, and the results were compared with those of 2 other scales: the McCormick scale and the Aminoff-Logue scale.

Results: Construct validity was demonstrated by confirming the hypothesized relationship between the scores of the SF-36 and the McCormick scale (p = 0.003), the Aminoff-Logue gait subscale (p = 0.025), the Aminoff-Logue micturition subscale (p = 0.013), and the Aminoff-Logue defecation subscale (p = 0.004). Reliability was demonstrated for all 8 SF-36 domain scales and the Physical Component Summary and the Mental Component Summary of the SF-36, where in each the Cronbach alpha satisfied the Nunnally criterion of > 0.85.

Conclusions: The authors' results demonstrated that SF-36 provides valid and reliable data for patients with IPSTs and that the survey can be used appropriately to evaluate these patients.