Validation of the Manchester Cosmetic Clinician-Reported Outcomes Questionnaire (MCCRO-Q)

Abstract

SummaryPatient-reported outcome measures (PROM) are collected pre- and post-operatively following cosmetic surgery. Clinicians assess their own outcomes following surgery, but without a validated clinician-reported outcome measure (CROM), there is no way to compare clinical results between clinicians or compare these to PROM. Assessment of clinical outcomes is important to address patients' expectations in the consenting process and to provide recommendations to patients pre-operatively to improve post-operative appearance.To address the lack of validated CROM for cosmetic surgery, the Manchester Cosmetic Clinical Reported Outcome Questionnaire (MCCRO-Q) was developed. This study assessed the inter-rater reliability of assessors using the four-point scale pre-operative and post-operative MCCRO-Q questionnaires. Fifteen assessors reviewed photos from pre- and post-operative assessments in the UK between July 2016 and February 2020. Ninety-five patients were included in this validation study, with each patient assessed by a minimum of three assessors.MCCRO-Q showed consistency between reviewers, with all intra-class coefficient averages >0.5 for pre-operative assessment and post-operative assessment. Twenty-six per cent of preoperative assessments demonstrated perfect agreement, 56% had a maximum one-point difference, and 18% had a two-point difference to the median score. One per cent of post-operative assessments post-operatively demonstrated perfect agreement, 36% had a one-point difference and 63% had a maximum point difference of two to the median score.The inter-rate agreement shows MCCRO-Q is a reliable tool when used with three or more assessors to judge patient appearance clinically, pre-operatively and post-operatively, concerning abdominoplasty.