Patient Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
What Are PROMs ?
Patient Reported Outcome Measures or PROMs for short, are tools that ask questions about people’s health. They are used to gather information directly from patients about their symptoms, condition and overall quality of life. There are many different types of PROMs used in medicine for different conditions and situations. In our speciality of Trauma and Orthopaedics we use a lot of PROMs.
For the current prospective results please click here.
Knee pain and Patients undergoing Knee replacements
In patients under my care with knee problems, particularly knee pain due to arthritis we use a PROM questionnaire called the Oxford Knee Score. It asks you 12 straightforward questions about your knee and gives you 5 options to answer for each question. Please click on the link to view the questionnaire. Oxford Knee Score.
The results are tallied up to give you a score out of 48. It is important to realise that a one-off score is not that useful (and patients scores are not meant to be compared). What is useful is how an individual patient’s scores may change over time based on the treatment or intervention they have had, for example, a knee replacement. It is a validated score that has been used successfully in research for many years. We would hope the scores reduced over time as the patient’s symptoms improved after the operation and rehabilitation.
Knee Injuries and Patients undergoing Ligament Reconstruction
Mr Davies submits all his knee ligament reconstruction data into The National Ligament Registry. For more information visit the website (also a really good information resource for patients) www.uknlr.co.uk
This is an online encrypted database designed by UK knee surgeons to gather information about the operations they perform and how their patients do post operatively.
The NLR uses specific PROMs questionnaires for knee issues to follow patients progress over time (see below) as well as general health scores. The input of these is all web based via e-mail to make it easier to analyse large groups of data.
The KOOS is a patient reported joint-specific score, which is useful for assessing changes in knee pathology over time, with or without treatment.
Lysholm / Tegner Activity Score Questionnaire.
The Lysholm score is a 100-point scoring system for examining a patient’s knee-specific symptoms including mechanical locking, instability, pain, swelling, stair climbing, and squatting. The Tegner Activity Scale is a one-item score that grades activity based on work and sports activities on a scale of 0 to 10. Zero represents disability because of knee problems and 10 represents national or international level level.
The IKDC Questionnaire is a subjective scale that provides patients with an overall function score. The questionnaire looks at 3 categories: symptoms, sports activity, and knee function. The symptoms subscale helps to evaluate things such as pain, stiffness, swelling and giving-way of the knee.
EQ-5D is a standardized instrument for measuring generic health status. It has been widely used in population health surveys, clinical studies, economic evaluation and in routine outcome measurement in the delivery of operational healthcare.
Why are PROM’s scores important ?
It is really important to fill in your scores because as we collect lots of data from our patients, more numbers help us to see trends, both good and/or bad which can guide further research and ultimately better care for our patients.
We would be extremely grateful if you could fill in your questionnaires when asked and return your forms to Debbie Rollason.
To Look at Mr Davies PROMS Data from the NLR as of May 2020 please click here.
