Patient-related outcome questionnaires in the assessment of the results of total hip replacement

A variety of patient-related outcome questionnaires have been used for the assessment of results of total hip replacement. Generic core scales (SF-12, SF-36) and disease-specific scales like: Harris Hip Score, Western Ontario and McMaster University Osteoarthritis Index, Hip dysfunction and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score, Oxford Hip Score, American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons hip and knee Questionnaire, Lower Extremity Functional Scale are used most frequently. Even though all of them were assessed in terms of construct and content validity, reproducibility and sensitivity, there are still some problems related to bias when total hip replacement evaluation is performed in the presence of comorbidities, contralateral hip disease and ceiling effect influencing the final score. As a result, there is a need for development of a new PRO questionnaire in order to improve total hip replacement assessment, enable early detection of postoperative complications or to evaluate the results of surgery in both hips separately. It is crucial that such measuring device has to be deprived of the influence of irrelevant factors on the final score.