Follow-up Compliance and Outcomes of Knee Ligamentous Reconstruction or Repair Patients Enrolled in an Electronic Versus a Traditional Follow-up Protocol

: Patient-reported outcome measures are increasingly used in research and clinical practice, but their collection can be burdensome. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether patients who underwent ligamentous reconstruction or repair of the knee enrolled in an automated electronic follow-up system had greater follow-up compliance than patients enrolled in a traditional follow-up protocol. This study also evaluated whether enrollment in an automated electronic follow-up system was associated with improved surgical outcomes. The authors retrospectively reviewed follow-up data from 183 patients who underwent ligamentous knee reconstruction or repair from 2012 to 2017 by a single surgeon. Follow-up compliance was documented as any contact with a patient greater than 6 weeks from surgery, and patient-reported outcome measures between 3 months and 1 year postoperatively were compared between groups. Patients enrolled in automated electronic follow-up had a trend toward greater follow-up compliance (80.00% vs 74.22%, P=.4028), with greater benefit for patients who underwent multiligamentous knee reconstruction (85.71% vs 65.52%, P=.3048). Patient-reported outcome measures were not significantly different between the traditional follow-up group and the automated follow-up group, despite a significantly greater time from operation to follow-up in the traditional follow-up group (9.3±2.30 vs 7.0±2.88 months, P=.038). Patients enrolled in the traditional follow-up protocol had a significantly increased complication rate (8% vs 0%, P=.034). The use of an automated electronic follow-up system has the potential to significantly increase follow-up compliance, especially in subgroups of patients having classically poor follow-up, with minimal limitations and lower burden on clinicians and staff. [Orthopedics. 2018; 41(5):e718-e723.].