Editorial Commentary: Postoperative Outcomes-Are We Asking the Right Questions? Shoulder Arthroscopy Patient Quality of Life Correlates With Joint-Specific Outcome and Is Predicated on Patient Expectation.
Patient-reported outcomes are, by definition, subjective, and there is consensus that individual patient expectations have a significant effect on the postoperative outcome after shoulder arthroscopy. Most of the outcomes in orthopaedic surgery are measured either in terms of functional scores assessing only one joint or as disease or condition-specific outcomes. As such, there exists a growing interest developing better tools to measure quality-of-life outcome scores as an assessment of overall patient health and satisfaction. Recent research shows that quality-of-life outcome measures correlate with joint-specific and functional outcomes after arthroscopic Bankart repair. We also personally believe that quality-of-life scores should become a standard outcome assessment measurement in orthopaedic surgery because while we perform surgery on the joint, we take care of the whole patient.