Development of a patient-reported outcome tool for assessing symptom burden during perioperative care in liver surgery: The MDASI-PeriOp-Hep

Purpose: Based on the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI), we developed a Patient-reported outcomes tool for hepatectomy perioperative care (MDASI-PeriOp-Hep). Methods: To establish the content validity, we generated PeriOp-Hep-specific candidate items from qualitative interviews of patients (n = 30), and removed items that lacked clinical relevance on the basis of input from panels of patients, caregivers, and clinicians. The psychometric properties of the MDASI-PeriOp-Hep were validated (n = 150). The cognitive debriefing and clinical interpretability were assessed to confirm the ease of comprehension, relevance, and acceptability of the tool. Results: Five symptoms specific to hepatectomy (abdominal bloating, tightness, or fullness; abdominal cramping; muscle weakness, instability, or vertigo; constipation; and incisional tightness) were identified as module items to form the MDASI-PeriOp-Hep. The Cronbach αs for symptoms and for interference were 0.898 and 0.861, respectively. The test-retest reliability was 0.887 for all 18 symptom severity items. Compared to other commonly used tools, correlation of MDASI-PeriOp-Hep scores to performance status (all, P < 0.001) and to the phase of perioperative care confirmed known-group validity. Convergent validity was excellent against other standard Patient-reported outcomes tools. Cognitive debriefing demonstrated that the MDASI-PeriOp-Hep was an easy to use and understandable tool. Conclusions: For integrating patient-reported outcomes in perioperative patient care, a procedure-specific tool is desirable. The MDASI-PeriOp-Hep is a valid, reliable, concise tool for measuring symptom severity and functional interference in patients undergoing liver surgery.