Source: Healio
Researchers from the Steadman Philippon Research Institute analyzed patient expectations before arthroscopic shoulder surgery and found that while the main expectation of all patients was return to sport, secondary expectations varied in importance depending on the reason why patients sought treatment.
“Elevated importance of specific expectation questions did not universally correlate with worse preoperative subjective scoring systems,” Ryan J. Warth, MD, and colleagues from the Steadman Philippon Research Institute in Vail, Colo., wrote in the study. “Whereas return to sport was the most important expectation overall, the importance of other expectations varied by patients’ reasons for seeking treatment. The current questionnaire may have limited use in patients with shoulder instability.”
Warth and colleagues evaluated QuickDASH, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) pain and function and SF-12 mental and physical component scores collected from 313 patients, according to the abstract. The expectation data was also collected from patients in the form of a questionnaire that asked for their expectations in relation to their reason for seeking treatment.
Return to sport and for the shoulder to return to pre-injury levels of pain and function were the most important reasons for the surgery; however, the reasons for seeking treatment influenced preoperative expectations. Patients with subluxation were more likely to have fewer expectations than other patients overall, and patients who wanted return to sport were more likely to have higher ASES pain scores, according to the abstract.