Patient-Reported Outcome Measures of the Knee

During the history of orthopedic research, several methods to evaluate outcomes in patients undergoing orthopedic treatment have been described. Historically, the assessment of treatment-related outcomes has been mainly based on surgeon opinions and physical examination. However, during the past few decades, there has been an increased interest in the creation and use of patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) to assess the effects of treatment from the patient’s perspective in terms of symptoms, activity, participation, and quality of life. Multiple PROMs have been created for individuals who have a variety of knee-related conditions such as anterior cruciate ligament or meniscus injuries, patellofemoral pain, or knee osteoarthritis. These PROMs have subsequently been used as an outcome measure in orthopedic clinical research and, more recently, implemented as part of standard orthopedic clinical practice to understand the effects of treatment for a variety of knee-related conditions, thereby contributing to the growing body of research-based and practice-based evidence for treatment of a variety of knee-related orthopedic conditions. Although the use of PROMs has allowed increased understanding of the effects of different treatments on patients’ health status, there are still some unsolved problems, such as standardization of the use of PROMs in orthopedic clinical research and practice, thus limiting the ability to compare different treatments. Therefore, the aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of different knee-related PROMs, provide information related to the clinical applicability of different knee-related patient-reported outcome measures, and present future directions and recommendations for the use of PROMs to assess the effects of treatment for the knee.