Patients Undergoing Shoulder Stabilization Procedures Do Not Accurately Recall Their Preoperative Symptoms at Short-...

Area of Science:

• Orthopedic Surgery
• Patient-Reported Outcomes
• Surgical Recovery

Background:

• Assessing the accuracy of patient recall of symptoms after surgery is crucial for understanding recovery and outcomes.
• While elderly populations may have impaired recall, the accuracy in younger surgical patients remains under-investigated.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the accuracy of symptom recall in younger patients following shoulder stabilization surgery.
• To assess recall accuracy using disease-specific patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) up to two years postoperatively.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 119 patients was divided into early (6-8 months) and late (9-24 months) recall groups.
• Patients completed the Western Ontario Shoulder Instability Index (WOSI) and Melbourne Instability Shoulder Score (MISS) recalling preoperative symptoms.
• Paired t-tests and intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) analyzed differences and correlations between actual and recalled scores.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found between mean actual and recalled preoperative scores for either group.
• However, significant absolute differences between actual and recalled scores were observed in both early and late recall groups.
• Average absolute differences exceeded the minimal detectable change (MDC) for both PROMs, indicating substantial recall inaccuracy.

Conclusions:

• Individual recall of preoperative symptoms after shoulder instability surgery is not accurate in younger patients.
• Despite mean scores showing no significant difference, individual recall is unreliable for research purposes.
• Recall accuracy did not significantly decline over two years, but remained insufficient for precise research applications.