Measurement of Trigeminal Neuralgia Pain: Penn Facial Pain Scale

Neurosurg Clin N Am. 2016 Jul;27(3):327-36. doi: 10.1016/j.nec.2016.02.003.

Abstract

Pain is a subjective experience that cannot be directly measured. Therefore, patient-reported outcome is one of the currently accepted methods to capture pain intensity and its impact on activities of daily living. This article focuses on five patient-reported outcomes that have been used to measure trigeminal neuralgia pain-Visual Analog Scale, numeric rating scale, Barrow Neurological Institute Pain Intensity Score, McGill Pain Questionnaire, and Penn Facial Pain Scale. Each scale is evaluated for its practicality, applicability, comprehensiveness, reliability, validity, and sensitivity to measuring trigeminal neuralgia pain.

Keywords: Barrow Neurological Institute Pain Intensity Score; Brief pain inventory; McGill Pain Questionnaire; Numeric rating scale; Patient-reported outcomes; Penn Facial Pain Scale; Trigeminal neuralgia; Visual analog scale.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Facial Pain / diagnosis*
  • Humans
  • Pain Measurement / methods*
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Trigeminal Neuralgia / diagnosis*