Low-Back Impairment Rating Practices of Orthopaedic Surgeons

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Abstract
Physicians'' impairment ratings are an integral part of disability determinations. There are major difficulties in rating impairments manifested principally by pain (such as low-back pain), primarily owing to the relative absence of objective findings. Since there are no universally accepted criteria for rating low-back impairment, a notion of the impairment rating practices of orthopedists was designed through a survey. Many criteria apart from the physical examination apparently are considered in rating low-back impairment, in spite of the fact that in most compensation or legal systems such ratings are supposed to consider only objective physical findings. Ratings are ordinarily not given until an average of 8.9 mo. after an injury and 9.7 mo. after surgery. Many orthopedists probably give ratings in the absence of objective physical findings. Rating practices vary widely from physician to physician.

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