Comparison of Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) for Major Pathologies of the Forefoot, Midfoot, Hindfoot, and Achilles Using PROMIS

Abstract

Category: Other; Hindfoot; Midfoot/Forefoot Introduction/Purpose: Many legacy patient reported outcomes (PROs) lack sufficient validity and reliability for the evaluation of clinical outcomes following foot and ankle procedures. Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) is a newly developed PRO that has been validated for the general foot and ankle surgical population. It has since been used to assess the clinical outcomes of a variety of specific foot and ankle procedures. However, there is little data regarding clinical outcomes of patients at a more intermediate subgroup level. There has been some preconceptions that the different anatomic aspects of foot and ankle surgery have disparate functional and pain improvement. Thus, our study utilizes PROMIS to assess postoperative outcomes based on anatomical location in patients undergoing forefoot, midfoot, hindfoot, and Achilles procedures. Methods: Preoperative and one year postoperative PROMIS Physical Function (PF) and Pain Interference (PI) were prospectively collected from a cohort of patients undergoing a foot and ankle procedure at a tertiary medical center. The cohort was split into forefoot, midfoot, hindfoot, and Achilles procedure groups with 355, 95, 356, and 135 patients, respectively. Paired-t tests were used to compare preoperative versus postoperative outcomes within operative groups, while a one-way ANOVA was used to detect differences in PROMIS scores between operative groups. Results: Paired t-tests indicated that all four operative groups had significantly improved PROMIS PF and PI scores preoperatively versus one year postoperatively (all P <.001)(see attached figure). One-way ANOVA demonstrated that there were no differences in postoperative PROMIS PF and PI scores between the groups. A majority of patients achieved the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) level of improvement in PROMIS PF and PI scores following surgery. Conclusion: All four operative groups (forefoot, midfoot, hindfoot, Achilles) had significantly improved PROMIS PF and PI scores postoperatively compared to preperatively, indicating an improvement in physical function and pain outcomes in each of the operative groups. However, there were no differences in physical function and pain outcomes between the groups.