Preoperative Low Resilience Is Associated With Female Patients, Whereas High Resilience Is Associated With Improved Mental Health Scores During Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction.

PURPOSE

To evaluate the relationship between resilience, as measured by the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) after primary anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR).

METHODS

A cohort of 72 patients undergoing primary ACLR were followed for a minimum of 2 years. Preoperative BRS scores were collected, and patients were categorized into low resilience (LR), normal resilience (NR), and high resilience (HR). PROMs including the visual analog scale (VAS), measuring overall pain level from 0 to 10, the Veterans Rand (VR) 12-Item Health Survey Physical Component and Mental Components, Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcomes Score, and Marx Activity Rating Scale were collected preoperatively as well as up to 2 years postoperatively and compared among the various resilience groups.

RESULTS

BRS scores were significantly associated with VAS, VR 12-Item Health Survey Mental Component, and KOOS outcome scores. There was a significant difference among all 3 resilience groups (P = .0382) in change of VAS score from baseline to 2 years postoperatively, with a mean difference of 2.5 points, 1.1 points, and 0.7 points for LR, NR, and HR groups, respectively. There was a significant association of greater VR 12-Item Health Survey Mental Component scores, with greater resilience scores preoperatively (P < .0001) and at both 1 (P = .0034) and 2 years (P = .0235) postoperatively. Greater resilience scores were associated with greater KOOS scores at 1 year postoperatively (P = .0270). Female patients were more likely to fall into the LR group (80%).

CONCLUSIONS

In this cohort of patients undergoing ACLR, low resilience is positively associated with greater improvement in pain, and female patients tend to fall more into the LR group. At 1 year postoperatively, greater resilience scores were positively associated with greater aggregated KOOS scores. At 1 and 2 years postoperatively, greater resilience was positively associated with improved VR-12M scores.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE

Level II, prospective cohort study.