Regional Outcome Measure in Hand Surgery

Injuries and disease commonly affect the hand and these can significantly affect the ability of an individual to perform activities of daily living. The use of regional outcome measures or scoring systems is important as it allows comparison between these injuries and disease, and allows clinicians to assess progression and the effects of different treatment modalities. A patient-completed questionnaire is efficient in terms of time and resources, and allows the assessment of outcome without the need to attend an outpatient clinic. The Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire, the Patient Evaluation Measure (PEM) questionnaire, and the Michigan Hand Outcome (MHO) questionnaire are a few of the region-specific outcome measures commonly used for the hand, and are patient-completed questionnaires. They are frequently used to assess self-reported patient outcome in orthopaedics, rheumatology and neurology. In this book, the validity, reliability, responsiveness and bias of the various questionnaires used for the assessment of the hand is discussed.