Reply to Karlsen et al. Consensus on a core outcome set: a panel decision

Abstract

We are grateful for the letter from Karlsen et al., 4 that raised a very interesting point related to our previously published articles in PAIN. 1,6 Within these articles (and another one published recently by us as well 5 ), we systematically investigate outcome domains assessed in prospective interventional clinical trials regarding pain management after total knee arthroscopy (TKA 1 ) and sternotomy. 5 These data were consecutively used to develop a Core Outcome Set (COS) of domains referring to perioperative pain management after surgery in clinical trials, observational studies, and clinical practice by involving all relevant stakeholders, including patients. 6 By following a complex approach consisting of plenary group sessions (all panel members),

Authors' reply to the comment by Sabour

“…Notably, there remain different aspects to address are currently used scoring systems sufficiently precise in specific subgroups (e.g., gender [Tafelski et al, 2016]), in specific settings (e.g. nursing homes [Kutschar et al, 2022]) and feasible tools in core outcome sets of patient-reported pain measurement (Bigalke et al, 2021;Elbers et al, 2022;Pogatzki-Zahn, 2022)? We thank Siamak Sabour for the stimulating scientific discussion.…”