Patient Reported Outcome Assessments Used in the Evaluation of Patients after Ileal Pouch-Anal Anastomosis: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: There is a paucity of validated measures to evaluate how patients feel and function after restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis (IPAA) for ulcerative colitis. We performed a systematic review to evaluate all published patient reported outcomes (PROs) to assess symptom burden, functional status, and quality of life (QoL) after IPAA.

METHODS: An electronic literature search on PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science was performed from inception through October 12, 2021. Eligible full texts were further characterized by the type of assessment as well as the individual domains assessed by questions in the PRO measure.

RESULTS: Among the 129 full texts analyzed, 51 specific PRO measures were utilized. In the evaluation of all PRO measures, 46% included an assessment of disease-specific QoL with 27% evaluating more general QoL, and 15% assessing symptoms related to pouch function. Among the studies using disease-specific instruments, the Cleveland Clinic Global Quality of Life (42%) and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire (21%) were the most commonly used PRO measures. PRO questions were mapped to individual domains using binning methodology, with the greatest number of questions from individual PRO measures mapped to the bowel function domain (122).

CONCLUSION: In our assessment of PRO measures among patients after IPAA, the studies and individual measures varied widely in both the patient populations being evaluated as well as outcomes and specific domains being assessed. A valid measure that assesses the range of outcomes after IPAA could standardize assessment and advance the study of patients after IPAA.