Patient-reported outcomes. How important are they?

Outcome after surgical treatment has been based predominantly on objective criteria (biomedical model) and has largely ignored, until recently, the expectations, personal feelings, satisfaction, and quality of life of patients (outcomes model). The importance of this derives from considerations that the viewpoints and priorities of patients may not be the same as those of their surgeons. Furthermore, there is often little correlation between symptom severity and disease severity. Measures of quality of life and patient satisfaction are, thus, important in valid assessment of the results of surgical treatment. Global assessment based on both the biomedical and outcomes models constitutes the ideal. Questionnaires designed to measure both quality life (generic and specific) and patient satisfaction with treatment require careful development and validation by appropriate studies.