Response to Letter to the Editor on “The Functional Outcomes of Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis Managed Nonoperatively at the Joint Clinic at 5-Year Follow-Up: Does Surgical Avoidance Mean Success?”

Journal of Arthroplasty

Published
27 May 2020

Citation
Gwynne-Jones DP, Gwynne-Jones JH, Wilson RA. Response to Letter to the Editor on “The Functional Outcomes of Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis Managed Nonoperatively at the Joint Clinic at 5-Year Follow-Up: Does Surgical Avoidance Mean Success?”. Journal of Arthroplasty 2020;35(10):3060–3061. doi:10.1016/j.arth.2020.05.054

Abstract

We agree that our article is observational and we acknowledge our loss to follow-up. We also agree with his comments regarding the varying definitions and ways of measuring success. In our article, we used validated patient-reported outcome measures, general questions on functional outcomes, and patients’ perceptions of need for surgery at 5-year follow-up, but did not ask patients specifically whether they regarded their treatment, either surgical or nonoperative, as a success. … [see the full letter published in the Journal of Arthroplasty]