This study calculates the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for 7 shoulder outcome scores and 3 range-of-motion measures after total shoulder arthroplasty. It examines how MCID varies by prosthesis type, patient age, gender, and follow-up length. The goal is to define the minimum improvement that patients actually perceive as meaningful.
When you read a shoulder arthroplasty paper reporting a 'statistically significant' improvement, the real question is whether patients felt it. This study gives you the numbers: an ASES gain of about 13.6, a Constant gain of about 5.7, or an SST gain of about 1.5 is the floor for a patient to call the result meaningful.
A key mental model here is that MCID is not fixed. It shifts with prosthesis type and gender, so reverse TSA and female patients cross the threshold with smaller gains than anatomic TSA and male patients.
Because different scores weight pain, function, and motion differently, you cannot directly compare an ASES-based study to a Constant-based one. Use the UCLA score when comparing across mixed populations, since it was the most stable.
One caveat: this is a single-implant, industry-funded database with anchor questions that were not formally validated, so treat the exact thresholds as guidance, not gospel.
This study calculates the minimal clinically important difference (MCID) for 7 shoulder outcome scores and 3 range-of-motion measures after total shoulder arthroplasty. It examines how MCID varies by prosthesis type, patient age, gender, and follow-up length. The goal is to define the minimum improvement that patients actually perceive as meaningful.
When you read a shoulder arthroplasty paper reporting a 'statistically significant' improvement, the real question is whether patients felt it. This study gives you the numbers: an ASES gain of about 13.6, a Constant gain of about 5.7, or an SST gain of about 1.5 is the floor for a patient to call the result meaningful.
A key mental model here is that MCID is not fixed. It shifts with prosthesis type and gender, so reverse TSA and female patients cross the threshold with smaller gains than anatomic TSA and male patients.
Because different scores weight pain, function, and motion differently, you cannot directly compare an ASES-based study to a Constant-based one. Use the UCLA score when comparing across mixed populations, since it was the most stable.
One caveat: this is a single-implant, industry-funded database with anchor questions that were not formally validated, so treat the exact thresholds as guidance, not gospel.