Study highlights performance scores of surgeons who perform rotator cuff repair

According to recently published results, there was a large variation of about 25 points in the 6-month risk-adjusted American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons performance difference across the highest performing surgeons and the lowest performing surgeons who perform rotator cuff repair.

Researchers identified 995 patients from a sports medicine clinical data registry who were treated with arthroscopic rotator cuff repair by 34 surgeons between 2010 and 2017. After they performed a linear regression model to adjust for patient-reported outcomes, patient demographics and clinical characteristics, investigators predicted the ASES change scores for each surgeon. The risk-adjusted performance measure was calculated which was the difference between average unadjusted ASES change scores and risk-adjusted predicted ASES change scores.

Investigators noted the risk-adjusted performance scores demonstrated a “dramatic change” in relative ranking of surgeons vs. their ranking based on observed ASES change scores. Of the 34 surgeons, 31 surgeons saw a change in their ranking after risk adjustment. The observed ASES scores, on average, increased from baseline to 6 months across all surgeons from 49.5 points to 78 points. In the risk-adjustment model, factors that significantly impacted the predicted ASES change scores included male sex, workers’ compensation status, higher scores on the Veterans RAND 12-item Health Survey, lower baseline ASES scores, fair and poor tendon quality, and night pain. – by Monica Jaramillo

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.

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Source:

Thigpen CA, et al. J Bone Joint Surg Am.2018;doi:10.2106/JBJS.18.00211.