Table 2.
A summary of the measures used to quantify pain related to pelvic mesh implants
| Name of measure | Number of studies using measure | Components of pain related to pelvic mesh implants covered by each measure | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Timing (Onset/duration/ frequency of pain) |
Intensity | Impact/interference* | Location** | Phenomenological qualities | Patient expectations or beliefs | ||
| Analgesia amount/length of time used | 25 | x | x | ||||
| Anatomical diagram for patient completion (non-standardised) | 2 | x | |||||
| Brief pain inventory | 1 | x | 1, 2, 3, 4 | x | |||
| Bristol Female lower urinary tract symptoms questionnaire | 1 | x | 2, 4 | x | x | ||
| Clavien-Dindo classification | 17 | x | |||||
| Diary of symptoms | 5 | x | x | x | |||
| Electronic personal assessment questionnaire—pelvic floor | 2 | x | 1, 2, 3, 4 | x | x | ||
| EQ-5D-5L | 8 | x | 1, 3, 4 | ||||
| Female genitourinary pain index | 1 | x | x | 1, 2, 3, 4 | x | x | |
| Female sexual function index | 23 | x | x | 2 | x | ||
| International consultation on incontinence questionnaire vaginal symptoms | 28 | x | 2, 4 | x | x | ||
| International urogynaecology association (IUGA) complication grades | 19 | x | 1, 2 | x | |||
| King’s health questionnaire | 12 | x | 1, 2, 3, 4 | x | |||
| McGill pain questionnaire | 2 | x | 1, 2 | x | |||
| Novel measures/measures with no psychometric information*** | 28 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Numeric rating scale for pain | 15 | x | |||||
| Pain catastrophizing scale | 1 | x | 3 | x | |||
| Patient global impression of improvement | 56 | x | x | 1, 2, 3, 4 | |||
| Pelvic Floor distress inventory (PFDI; or the short form PFDI-20) | 68 | x | 1 | x | x | ||
| Colorectal-anal distress inventory as standalone subscale | 2 | x | 1 | ||||
| Urinary distress inventory as standalone subscale | 38 | x | 1 | x | |||
| Pelvic floor impact questionnaire (PFIQ; or the short form PFIQ-7) | 44 | x | 1, 3, 4 | x | |||
|
Pelvic organ prolapse–urinary incontinence sexual Function questionnaire (PISQ; or the short form PISQ-12, or revised PISQ-IR) |
62 | x | 2 | x | |||
| Pelvic organ prolapse symptom score | 2 | x | 1, 4 | x | x | ||
| Pelvic pain and urgency/frequency patient symptom scale | 1 | x | x | 2, 4 | x | ||
| Physical exam and/or oral report as an exclusive measure*** | 70 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Physical exam and/or oral report in addition to self-report measures*** | 100 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| Prolapse quality of life questionnaire | 10 | x | 1, 2, 3, 4 | x | |||
| Short-form health survey (SF-36/SF-12) | 13 | x | x | 1, 3, 4 | |||
| Visual analogue scale for pain | 70 | x | |||||
| Wong-Baker FACES scale | 3 | x | |||||
*1 = Physical functioning, 2 = Sexual functioning/relationships, 3 = Emotional functioning/mental health, 4 = Other aspect of quality of life
**This box is marked if the items in the measure examined pain in a specific bodily location (e.g., Do you experience pain in your lower abdomen?) or if the measure has an open-ended question (or body map) regarding the location of pain
***Due to the breadth of different measures within these categories, it was not possible to accurately portray the components of mesh pain covered by the measures within Table 1. Full bibliographic information relating to each of these studies is available at https://figshare.com/s/88d23a55f7cad5833856