Low back pain in patients hospitalised with liver cirrhosis- a retrospective study

BACKGROUND: Lower back pain is a common issue, but little is known about the prevalence of pain in patients with liver cirrhosis during hospitalisation. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine lower back pain in patients with liver cirrhosis. METHODS: The sample consisted of patients with liver cirrhosis (n = 79; men n = 55; women n = 24; mean age = 55.79 ± 12.52 years). The hospitalised patients were mobile. The presence and intensity of pain were assessed in the lumbar spine during hospitalisation. The presence of pain was assessed using the visual analogue pain scale (0–10). The range of motion of the lower spine was assessed using the Schober and Stibor tests. Frailty was measured by Liver Frailty Index (LFI). The condition of liver disease was evaluated using The Model For the End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and Child–Pugh score (CPS) and ascites classification. Student’s t test and Mann–Whitney test were used for analysis of the difference of group. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the Tukey post hoc test was used to test differences between categories of liver frailty index. The Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test pain distribution. Statistical significance was determined at the α-0.05 significance level. RESULT: The prevalence of pain in patients with liver cirrhosis was 13.92% (n = 11), and the mean intensity of pain according to the visual analogue scale was 3.73 (± 1.90). Lower back pain was present in patients with ascites (15.91%; n = 7) and without ascites (11.43%; n = 4). The prevalence of lower back pain was not statistically significant between patients with and without ascites (p = 0,426). The base of Schober’s assessment mean score was 3.74 cm (± 1.81), and based on Stibor’s assessment mean score was 5.84 cm (± 2.23). CONCLUSION: Lower back pain in patients with liver cirrhosis is a problem that requires attention. Restricted spinal mobility has been reported in patients with back pain, according to Stibor, compared to patients without pain. There was no difference in the incidence of pain in patients with and without ascites.