Oxford Knee Score

Questionnaire on the perceptions of patients about total knee replacement

Dawson J, Fitzpatrick R, Murray D, et al. The Journal of bone and joint surgery. British volume 1998 · PMID 9460955 · doi:10.1302/0301-620x.80b1.7859

Question

Can a short patient-completed questionnaire validly and reliably measure outcome after total knee replacement?

Design

Prospective development and validation study of a 12-item questionnaire in patients undergoing knee replacement.

Patients

Patients undergoing total knee replacement for arthritis.

Intervention

12-item Oxford Knee Score (pain and function)

Comparison

Existing generic and clinician-based measures

Primary outcome

Reliability, validity and responsiveness of the questionnaire

Key result

The questionnaire showed good internal consistency, reproducibility and validity, and was sensitive to change after knee replacement.

Limitations

Validated in a knee replacement population, so use in other knee conditions requires caution; scoring was later altered to 0-48.

Impact on practice

The OKS is the knee PROM collected nationally in NHS PROMs and the NJR, and is the default primary outcome in UK knee arthroplasty trials such as TOPKAT.