Comparative Analysis of the Independent Medical Examination Reports and Legal Decisions in Pain Medicine.
- Author:
Francis Sahngun NAHM
1
;
Pyung Bok LEE
;
Tae Hun KIM
;
Yong Chul KIM
;
Chul Joong LEE
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article
- Keywords: disability evaluation; pain; work ability evaluation
- MeSH: Accidents, Occupational; Accidents, Traffic; Awards and Prizes; Causalgia; Disability Evaluation; Fibromyalgia; Humans; Intervertebral Disc; Jurisprudence; Military Personnel; Myofascial Pain Syndromes; Peripheral Nervous System Diseases
- From:The Korean Journal of Pain 2010;23(1):28-34
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: BACKGROUND: An independent medical examination (IME) is a critical process for awarding reparation for injury. However, conducting an IME in pain medicine is very difficult, not only because pain is a subjective symptom, but also because there are no proper objective methods to demonstrate it. This study was conducted to compare IME reports and the court decisions on the disability status of the patients. METHODS: We analyzed 79 IME reports and 25 corresponding court decisions on the disability status of patients. The diagnoses, causal relationships between the patients' status and the trauma, McBride's degree of disability, the American Medical Association's impairment ratings, the estimated annual cost for future treatment, and the necessity of care-giving were compared and analyzed. RESULTS: The diagnoses in the 79 cases were complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) type I (58 cases), CRPS type II (7 cases), peripheral neuropathy (5 cases), myofascial pain syndrome (4 cases), herniated intervertebral disc (2 cases), and fibromyalgia (1 case). The types of accidents were road traffic accidents (50 cases), military injuries (14 cases), industrial accidents (11 cases), and others (4 cases). The IME reports and the court decisions stated considerably different McBride's degrees of disability (P = 0.014). However, there was no significant difference in the estimated cost for future treatment between the IME reports and the court decisions (P = 0.912). CONCLUSION: IME reports should be accurate, fair, and based on objective findings. Feedback on IMEs from the court decisions is helpful for reference use.
