Selection of questionnaires for clinical studies in orthopedics and trauma surgery

In orthopedics the importance of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) has increased enormously, not only clinically and academically but also with respect to health policy. Many such measurement instruments are available for several areas and joints, so that a uniform application of suitable PROMs is recommended for comparisons under scientific and clinical aspects. A PROM must fulfil certain scientific criteria (e.g., reliability, validity, and responsiveness), should be validated for the pathology of interest, and a validated translated version should be available for the respective language. Furthermore, data should be available to interpret results not only with respect to the statistical significance but also regarding their clinical relevance, e.g., the minimal clinically important difference (MCID).