Cardiac surgery is associated with high risks, significant trauma, and long recovery periods. With advances in cardiac surgery techniques, the mortality rate and incidence of complications have been steadily decreasing. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have gradually become an important area of research in postoperative recovery of cardiac surgery. The use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in this field helps to reflect patients' physiological, psychological, and social functioning during recovery, and provides scientific evidence for clinical interventions, which may further improve prognosis and enhance patient recovery experience. This paper reviews the dimensions of PROMs in the field of cardiac surgery recovery, the current status of existing PROMs scales, and the progress of their application, while also identifying the limitations of the existing tools. Finally, it explores future research directions for PROMs in cardiac surgery patients.
Cardiac surgery is often associated with significant trauma, which can lead to a suboptimal recovery experience for patients. With advancements in cardiovascular surgical techniques, the rates of surgical mortality and complications have significantly decreased, leading to increased attention on patients' subjective recovery experiences after the surgery. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) refer to the feedback provided directly by patients regarding their health status, functional abilities, and treatment experiences. Accurate assessment and timely intervention of PROs have become a growing area of interest in the academic community, with improvements in certain PROs showing significant correlations with prognostic benefits. However, there remains controversy regarding which dimensions of PROs should be prioritized in the postoperative recovery of cardiac surgery patients and how to select appropriate evaluation scales for these dimensions. We referenced the research progress both domestically and internationally, combined with clinical practices from around the world, and widely solicited expert opinions to reach a consensus on the evaluation dimensions of postoperative PROs for cardiac surgery patients. This includes the overall recovery status of patients (surgical recovery, quality of life) and its nine dimensions (pain, physiology, sleep, thirst, frailty, activity, cognition, mental health, and social support). This consensus comprehensively considers the application of PROs scales, and introduces 1-3 scales with the widest application and most solid evidence for each dimension, aiming to further standardize the evaluation dimensions of PROs after cardiac surgery in China and the selection of scales for each dimension.