Editorial—Measuring Satisfaction: Can It Be Done?

The impact of orthopaedic surgery is best measured using endpoints that matter to patients. Validated outcomes tools allow us to evaluate improvements in pain intensity, magnitude of disability, and other results that are important to patients. But metrics purporting to score patient satisfaction with the results of surgery—prominent both in the media [11] and in scientific publications of late [7, 14]—can be influenced by many factors that vary so wildly from patient to patient that trying to measure this parameter is unlikely to produce anything meaningful. And the act of quantifying “satisfaction” will result in findings that are tempting to quote, but risk misleading clinicians, policymakers, and patients.