Is Your injured knee getting better, getting worse, or staying about the same?

 No matter what treatment you choose for your knee injury (rest, physical therapy, medicines, or surgery) doctors and patients need a ways to measure how the injured knee is healing and how the knee injury is affecting the patient’s ability to live and work.

Are you and your knee injury better, worse, or the same?

 To follow your progress after a knee injury, you and your doctor can follow three aspects:

  1. the physical exam of the knee performed by the doctor
  2. the Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS)
  3. The HRQOL-14 or the HF-36 quality of life measures

 The components of the knee physical exam are detailed in an upcoming post.

 The Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Score (KOOS) asks the patient detailed questions on knee pain and function.

 The KOOS is available online at https://www.orthopaedicscore.com/scorepages/knee_injury_osteopaedic_outcome_score.html.

 You can fill the form out on your computer and then print it out for your records or for your doctor or physical therapist or you can save it online at the site.

 The HRQOL-14 is a quality of life measure available from the CDC at no charge. It measures your overall health related quality of life. This gives us a measurement of whether treatment has made a meaningful difference. It is available at: https://www.cdc.gov/hrqol/hrqol14_measure.htm.

 The HF-36 is widely used quality of life measurement that is widely used but it requires a licensing fee. You can review the HF-36 at https://www.ocneurosurgery.com/pdfs/SF36form.pdf.

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