Simple Knee Value: a simple evaluation correlated to existing knee PROMs

Area of Science:

• Orthopedics
• Medical device validation
• Patient-reported outcome measures

Background:

• The Simple Knee Value (SKV) is a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) assessing knee function as a percentage of normal.
• Validating the SKV against established knee PROMs is crucial for its clinical adoption.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate the Simple Knee Value (SKV) by assessing its correlation with existing knee-related PROMs.
• To evaluate the SKV's reliability, responsiveness, and discriminative ability in diverse patient populations.

Main Methods:

• Prospective study involving 47 young patients, 49 older patients, and 30 healthy controls.
• Correlation analysis (Spearman) of SKV with Lysholm, IKDC, KOOS, and WOMAC scores.
• Assessment of test-retest reliability (ICC) and responsiveness (pre- vs. postoperative scores).

Main Results:

• SKV demonstrated strong correlations with Lysholm, IKDC, KOOS, and WOMAC in both young and older patients (p < 0.0001).
• Excellent test-retest reliability was observed in younger patients (ICC=0.862), and moderate reliability in older patients (ICC=0.506).
• SKV showed significant responsiveness to surgical changes (p < 0.0001) and ability to distinguish patients from controls (p < 0.0001).

Conclusions:

• The Simple Knee Value (SKV) is a valid, reliable, responsive, and discriminating outcome measure for knee function.
• SKV's simplicity offers advantages for routine clinical use by physicians.
• The SKV can be effectively integrated into daily medical practice for knee assessment.