By condition
Which score for which condition
Choosing the instrument is the question that comes before calculating it. Each page below sets out the validated measures for one condition, what distinguishes them, and the published thresholds that apply.
31 conditions are covered. A condition appears here only once at least two instruments on the site apply to it — a page listing one tool would tell you nothing you could not get from the tool itself.
Elbow1
Foot & Ankle5
- Achilles tendinopathy2Achilles tendinopathy is followed with foot and ankle outcome measures, with the sport and recreation items carrying most of the meaningful change in active patients.FAAM · FAOS
- Ankle fracture7Ankle fractures are classified by the level of the fibular fracture or by the injury mechanism, and both classifications are ultimately asking the same question: is the ankle stable.AO/OTA · AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot · Weber · FAAM · FAOS · Lauge-Hansen · Ottawa Ankle Rules
- Ankle osteoarthritis3Ankle osteoarthritis is assessed with ankle-specific patient-reported outcome measures before and after arthrodesis or total ankle arthroplasty.AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot · FAAM · FAOS
- Ankle sprain and instability6Acute ankle injury is first triaged for fracture with the Ottawa Ankle Rules, then followed with a foot and ankle patient-reported outcome measure if instability persists.AOFAS Ankle-Hindfoot · FAAM · FADI · FAOS · LEFS · Ottawa Ankle Rules
- Hallux valgus3Hallux valgus outcomes are measured with foot and ankle patient-reported instruments, though most were designed around the ankle and have limited forefoot-specific content.AOFAS Hallux · FAAM · FAOS
General Health4
- Chronic musculoskeletal pain5In persistent musculoskeletal pain, psychological measures such as pain self-efficacy predict disability and return to work more strongly than pain intensity does.MME · PSEQ · PROMIS Global-10 · Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia · TSK-11
- Metastatic bone disease2A long bone metastasis is scored for fracture risk across four variables — site, pain, radiographic appearance and lesion size — to decide between prophylactic fixation and radiotherapy.ECOG · Mirels
- Perioperative risk assessment5Perioperative risk in orthopaedic surgery is described with a physical status class for overall fitness and a weighted comorbidity index for longer-term survival, which answer different questions.ASA · Caprini · CCI · Elixhauser · PROMIS Global-10
- Venous thromboembolism2Suspected deep vein thrombosis is stratified by pre-test probability before D-dimer or ultrasound, because a negative D-dimer only excludes DVT in patients who are already unlikely to have it.Caprini · Wells DVT
Hip5
- Femoroacetabular impingement5Femoroacetabular impingement syndrome requires symptoms, clinical signs and imaging findings together — an abnormal alpha angle alone is a morphological finding present in a large share of asymptomatic people, not a diagnosis.Alpha Angle · HOOS · HOS · LCEA · Tönnis Angle
- Hip dysplasia6Acetabular dysplasia is quantified with the lateral centre-edge angle and the Tönnis angle read together, because a borderline centre-edge angle behaves very differently depending on whether the weight-bearing zone is horizontal or steeply upsloping.Crowe · HOOS · HOS · LCEA · Oxford Hip Score · Tönnis Angle
- Hip fracture5Intracapsular hip fractures are classified by displacement, which determines whether the femoral head can be preserved with fixation or requires arthroplasty.AO/OTA · CCI · Garden · Harris Hip Score · Pauwels
- Hip osteoarthritis5Hip osteoarthritis is measured with a hip-specific patient-reported outcome score before and after arthroplasty, supported by a radiographic grade for structural severity.Harris Hip Score · HOOS · HOS · Kellgren-Lawrence · Oxford Hip Score
- Non-arthritic hip pain3Hip and groin pain in a younger adult without established arthritis is assessed with hip-specific outcome measures designed for that population, because arthritis-oriented instruments ceiling out in patients who are otherwise functioning well.Alpha Angle · HOOS · LEFS
Knee6
- ACL injury7ACL injury outcomes are tracked with a knee-specific symptom score alongside an activity-level scale, because a good symptom score in a patient who has stopped pivoting sport is not the same result as the same score in one who has returned to it.ACL-RSI · IKDC · KOOS · Knee Outcome Survey · Lysholm · Marx · Tegner
- Cartilage injury2Articular cartilage damage is graded arthroscopically from normal through softening and fissuring to full-thickness loss exposing subchondral bone.Outerbridge · Tegner
- Knee osteoarthritis10Knee osteoarthritis is assessed with a radiographic grade for structural severity and a patient-reported outcome measure for symptoms and function, and the two correlate only weakly — which is why both are needed.CCI · IKDC · Kellgren-Lawrence · KOOS · Knee Outcome Survey · LEFS · Outerbridge · PROMIS Global-10 · Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia · TSK-11
- Meniscal injury5Meniscal injury is assessed with knee-specific patient-reported outcome measures, with the sport and recreation subscales carrying most of the signal in younger patients.KOOS · Knee Outcome Survey · Lysholm · Marx · Tegner
- Patellar instability4Patellar instability assessment centres on patellar height, measured as a ratio on a lateral radiograph, with patella alta above roughly 1.2 a recognised and correctable risk factor.Caton-Deschamps · Insall-Salvati · IKDC · Outerbridge
- Tibial plateau fracture3Tibial plateau fractures are classified into six patterns that separate lower-energy lateral injuries from higher-energy medial, bicondylar and metaphyseal-diaphyseal injuries.Ottawa Knee Rule · Pittsburgh Knee Rules · Schatzker
Shoulder5
- Adhesive capsulitis6Adhesive capsulitis is followed with shoulder outcome measures that capture both pain and lost range, since the defining feature is restriction of passive as well as active movement.ASES Score · Constant Score · Oxford Shoulder Score · SPADI · SST · UCLA Shoulder Score
- Proximal humerus fracture3Proximal humerus fractures are classified by counting displaced anatomical parts, where displacement means more than 1 centimetre of separation or more than 45 degrees of angulation.AO/OTA · Constant Score · Neer
- Rotator cuff disease8Rotator cuff disease is assessed with shoulder-specific patient-reported outcome measures, chosen according to whether fine discrimination or brevity matters more.ASES Score · Constant Score · KJOC · Oxford Shoulder Score · QuickDASH · SPADI · SST · UCLA Shoulder Score
- Shoulder instability7Shoulder instability is measured with instability-specific scores rather than general shoulder scores, because a patient between dislocations may have a near-normal general score while remaining functionally unstable.ASES Score · Constant Score · KJOC · QuickDASH · Rowe Score · SST · WOSI
- Shoulder osteoarthritis6Shoulder osteoarthritis is tracked before and after arthroplasty with shoulder-specific patient-reported outcome measures, supported by a radiographic grade for structural severity.ASES Score · Constant Score · Oxford Shoulder Score · SPADI · SST · UCLA Shoulder Score
Spine4
- Cervical spine trauma2Blunt cervical spine trauma is triaged for imaging with one of two validated decision rules, both around 99% sensitive for clinically significant injury but differing in how much imaging they avoid.Canadian C-Spine Rule · NEXUS
- Low back pain7Low back pain disability is measured with either the Roland-Morris questionnaire or the Oswestry Disability Index, and the choice between them depends on how severe the population is.Modified Oswestry · ODI · PSEQ · RMDQ · STarT Back · Tampa Scale of Kinesiophobia · TSK-11
- Lumbar disc herniation3Lumbar disc herniation is followed with back-specific disability measures, chosen for their responsiveness in surgical rather than primary-care populations.Modified Oswestry · ODI · RMDQ
- Spondylolisthesis2Spondylolisthesis is graded by the percentage of vertebral translation on a standing lateral radiograph, with low-grade and high-grade slips separated at 50 percent because that is the distinction that drives management.Meyerding · ODI