Measuring the outcome of injuries and the health care personnel's treatment of them continues to gain importance. Increasingly, these outcome measures are becoming more patient oriented, which reflects a trend towards honoring the importance of patient satisfaction versus surgeon satisfaction with results of treatments. Patient satisfaction has been shown to most closely follow subjective symptoms and function.
Vanderbilt Sports Medicine is fortunate to be the coordinating center for three very large research endeavors that are interested in measuring the short and long-term prognosis of both knee and shoulder injuries using patient-oriented outcome tools.
The Multicenter Orthopaedic Outcomes Network (MOON) was established in 2001 to look at how people do after undergoing an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction. This NIH-funded consortium consists of 18 sports medicine physicians across 7 sites. Beginning in 2002, this study has been able to attain over 85% follow-up at both 2 and 6 years post-surgery from over 3,500 enrolled patients. It continues to enroll and follow up patients, with the goal of identifying predictors of who does well and conversely, the risk factors for poorer outcomes following an ACL reconstruction.
In 2004, MOON expanded and established the MOON Shoulder Group - a complimentary group of physicians that were interested in shoulder injuries. This group consists of 16 physicians across 8 sites. The long-term objectives of the MOON Shoulder Group’s research are to lend insight into the natural history of rotator cuff disease, to identify patients at risk for progression of rotator cuff disease, and to assist physicians in the management of patients with these shoulder injuries.
The Multicenter ACL Revision Study (MARS) was established in 2006 with the active endorsement, collaboration, and initial funding from the leading orthopaedic sports medicine specialty society -- the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM). This study is currently funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
This consortium consists of 87 surgeons from over 52 sites across the United States and Canada who are interested in outcomes following an ACL revision surgery. Although less than 10% of primary ACL reconstructions fail and require another (revision) reconstruction, it has been reported that these revisions have worse outcomes compared with the first time patients get their ACL repaired (primary ACL reconstructions). There are currently 1,200 patients enrolled in this study.