A systematic search of 8 electronic databases was performed to identify publications of clinical studies involving knee arthroplasty, in which a scoring system was used to assess patient outcomes.
Of the 1994 unique publications identified, 438 met the selection criteria. Identified articles reported a total of 86 scoring systems, 5 of which were reported in greater than 10.0% of included studies. The 1989 Knee Society Score was markedly the most utilized scoring system (58.7%). Use of the Knee Society Score was significantly associated with orthopedic journal impact factor (IF; P = .001), with greater use observed in journals of lower IF. Use of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index escalated with increasing IF; however, no statistically significant association was observed. A preference for scoring systems developed in the country of residence of the first author was also identified.
A large number of scoring systems are used to assess knee arthroplasty patients; however, 5 scores are consistently reported. By identifying and quantifying scoring system use, this review hopes to stimulate regularity in score usage to allow for improvements in comparability of clinician and patient-reported outcome measures in the knee arthroplasty literature.