Patient-Reported Outcomes Associated With “Completely Better” Status at 2 Years After Hip Arthroscopy

Background: Measures such as the Patient Acceptable Symptom State and minimum clinically important difference have been used to contextualize patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Assessment of patients’ perception of being “completely better” (CB) after hip arthroscopy has not been studied. Purposes: To (1) determine the prevalence and characteristics of patients who report being CB at 2 years after hip arthroscopy; (2) determine whether PROs measuring function, pain, and mental health are associated with CB status; and (3) determine threshold values for PROs predictive of achieving CB status. Study Design: Case-control study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: Patients undergoing hip arthroscopy at a single institution from October 2015 to January 2020 were administered electronic surveys assessing sociodemographic variables and PROs at baseline and 2 years postoperatively. The CB anchor question was “Is the condition for which you underwent surgery completely better now?” Threshold values for PROs associated with achieving CB status at 2 years postoperatively were identified with 90% specificity. Variables with an area under the curve of >0.80 on a receiver operating characteristic curve were selected for multivariate analysis. Results: Overall, 29 of 62 patients (47%) achieved CB status. There were no differences in age, sex, body mass index, race, prior hip surgery, preoperative opioid use, smoking status, or preoperative expectations between the CB and no-CB groups. The CB group had better 2-year postoperative and pre- to postoperative change values on all PROs (P < .05 for all) except for the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS)–Depression and the Numeric Pain Scale (NPS) for whole-body pain. Two-year postoperative PRO thresholds for achieving CB status were determined as PROMIS–Physical Function (PF) ≥51.3 or increase in PROMIS–PF ≥12 points, PROMIS–Pain Interference ≤46.6 or decrease in PROMIS–Pain Interference ≥12.2 points, NPS for operative hip pain of ≤1.0, Musculoskeletal Outcomes Data Evaluation and Management System–expectations met ≥95.0, and Surgical Satisfaction Questionnaire (SSQ-8) ≥87.5. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that higher SSQ-8 score and greater improvement on the PROMIS–PF were independent predictors of achieving CB status. Conclusion: Almost half of the study patients perceived being CB at 2 years after hip arthroscopy. Multiple postoperative PROs scores were associated with achieving CB status.