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August 29, 2024
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Negative pain thoughts may be linked with poor outcomes after arthroscopic meniscectomy

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Key takeaways:

  • Negative pain thoughts may be associated with poor outcomes after arthroscopic meniscectomy.
  • Preoperative negative pain thoughts were associated with poor postoperative SF-12, IKDC and VAS pain scores.

Patients with increased levels of negative pain thoughts may have poor patient-reported outcomes, knee function and general health after arthroscopic meniscectomy, according to published data.

Brian Johnson, MD, resident physician from the department of orthopedic surgery at the University of Cincinnati, and colleagues performed a single-center, prospective, observational cohort study of 92 patients (mean age, 52.5 years) who underwent arthroscopic meniscectomy with follow-up between 3 months and 1 year.

Doctor consulting with patient
Negative pain thoughts may be associated with poor outcomes after arthroscopic meniscectomy. Image: Adobe Stock

Johnson and colleagues used the Negative Pain Thoughts Questionnaire Short Form (NPTQ-SF) to analyze the effect of negative cognitive biases about pain on several outcomes including SF-12 scores, IKDC scores and VAS pain scores.

Johnson and colleagues found preoperative NPTQ-SF scores were significantly negatively associated with IKDC scores, SF-12 physical health scores, SF-12 mental health scores and VAS pain scores at a mean postoperative follow-up of 108.5 days.

They also found patients with a preoperative NPTQ-SF score greater than 8 were less likely to achieve the patient-acceptable symptom state for postoperative IKDC score compared with patients with a preoperative NPTQ-SF score of 8 or less (39% vs. 63%).

“It is important to identify patients at risk by screening for these negative cognitive biases in the presurgical evaluation,” Johnson and colleagues wrote in the study.