INTEROBSERVER AND INTRAOBSERVER RELIABILITY OF SUB-AXIAL INJURY CLASSIFICATION AND SEVERITY SCALE (SLIC) BETWEEN RADIOLOGIST, RESIDENT AND SPINE SURGEON

초록

Background and Aims The Sub-axial Injury Classification (SLIC) and Severity Scale successfully launched to help spine surgeon to classify sub-axial spine injury. To determine whether the SLIC and Severity Scale can be common evaluation tools between radiologist, resident and spine surgeon is very important for universal application. This study aimed to evaluate reliability of a SLIC to radiologist and residents as well as spine surgeon. Methods Ninety-five cases of subaxial spine injury post surgery were included in this study. Three observers measured injury morphology (0-4), disco-ligamentous complex (0-2) and neurological status (0-4) as recommended by the Spine Trauma Study Group and they recorded a total score (0-10). All measurements were repeated twice by physicians Twenty cases which were difficult to evaluate due to poor quality radiological findings were dropped and the remaining 75 cases were analyzed by Cronbach’ s Alpha statistics for interobserver and intraobserver reliability. Results Intraobserver agreements in total score for each of the 3 observers was “excellent” with correlation ranging from 95.4% (resident), 94.6% (spinals surgeon) and 95.0% (radiologist). Interobserver reliability in 1st and 2nd total score was respectively recorded to 86.3%, 85.5% between residents and spine surgeons, 84.7%, 84.0% between residents and radiologist and 82.8%, 80.9% between spine surgeon and radiologist. Conclusions SLIC and Severity scale is comprehensive and easily applicable with sufficient reproducibility. It can be used common communication tools between residents, radiologists and spine surgeons. References 1. VACCARO AR, HULBERT RJ et al. (2007) SPINE 32: 2365-2374 2. KWON BK, LEHMAN RA et al. (2006) J Am AcadOrthopSurg 14: 78-79