An Italian version of the Disability of the Arm, Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire has been devised and its reliability and validity have been assessed in a cross-sectional study of 108 consecutive patients with upper extremity pathologies. A sub-sample of 30 patients was used to assess re-test reliability. The principal DASH scale showed a high correlation with other patient-oriented measures and demonstrated good reproducibility, consistency and validity, which were similar to those for other languages' versions of DASH. These findings suggest that the evaluation capacities of the Italian DASH are equivalent to those of other language versions of the DASH.

Despite the clinical success of total knee arthroplasty, little information can be found in the literature about the relationship between certain postoperative physical findings and the outcome. Specifically, is the range of motion related to patient perception of outcome? We performed a cohort prospective study on 48 patients assessed by patient-oriented evaluations (Short Form 36 Health Survey and Oxford Knee Questionnaire) and objective evaluations after total knee arthroplasty. Thirty-four patients were women and 14 were men. The mean age at followup was 71 years (range, 64-80 years) and the minimum followup was 20 months (mean, 28.5 months; range, 20-30 months). We found a positive correlation between range of motion and patient-oriented evaluations in some domains of the Short Form 36 and in the Oxford knee score.