This is a cross-sectional survey, best suited to evaluate the effect of treatments.
Potential participants will be identified from a list of patients who have attended the
pain clinic at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary for chronic abdominal wall pain.
These patients will be invited to participate in the study via posted letter. The letter
will include a participant information sheet detailing who is running the study, what the
purpose of the study is, what participating in the study requires of a patient and how
their information will be used.
Patients who wish to participate will return a note of interest, included within the
participant information pack, and will then be invited to attend an outpatient clinic in
the Aberdeen Health Care and Community Village. Informed consent will be obtained. The
questionnaire will be distributed. It is estimated that the questionnaire will take
approximately 15 minutes to complete. Each completed questionnaire will be reviewed
immediately by a member of the research team to ensure all relevant sections have been
completed. Following completion of the questionnaire, patients will be allowed to leave.
It is not anticipated that participants will need to be contacted after submitting their
completed questionnaire. Participants who explicit express the need for further pain
management will be referred to NHS Grampian pain clinic.
A response from potential participants will be awaited for 4 weeks. In the event of no
response, a maximum of 2 written reminders 4 weeks apart will be sent along with
participant information pack.
The questionnaires have previously been validated for use in neuropathic pain, and the
outcomes of the questionnaire are consistent with those recommended by the 2008
Initiative on Methods, Measurement and Pain Assessment in Clinical Trials (IMMPACT)
publication. 17
The questionnaire will consist of four main sections: baseline demographic details, a
detailed pain history prior to surgery, including questions from the Brief Pain
Inventory, 18 open-ended questions to explore the patient's opinions of both the
operation and their health status since and, finally, an overall picture of health using
the European Quality of Life-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D) Score 19 and patient global impression
of change scale. 20
In order to compare pain both before and after surgery, participants will be asked to
complete these sections twice, focusing on their previous health state and their current
health.
Since pain scores are not routinely collected and all patients will be seen after
surgery, pre-operative pain scores will be retrospective.
