Scoring the knee

The move toward evidence-based medicine has brought a new emphasis on the use of sound outcome measures to evaluate patients and the treatments provided to them. While the assessment of orthopaedic surgical procedures dates back to the origins of the field, the use of traditional measures of success following surgery, such as physical examination and radiographic criteria, is now considered only one component of a complete evaluation process. In the past three decades, outcome assessment following orthopaedic surgery has focused increasingly on the perspective of the patient, rather than the surgeon. However, the role of radiologic and physical exam parameters remains pivotal, and patient-oriented outcomes must be viewed as having a critical, though complimentary, role in analyzing the results of treatment.