Controversies in Outcome Measures of Skull Base Surgery

Outcome measures in skull base surgery have a major role in
guiding the different treatment modalities available for a particular patient. The literature has been confined largely to describing surgical functional outcomes conducted by treating surgeons, using very general scales in a poorly designed retrospective fashion that includes a mixture of pathology and location. Recently, there has been increasing interest regarding patient report outcome measures (PROM) and Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) measures in skull base surgery that are considered to be more accurate for QOL assessment. However, studies in this field demonstrate significant methodological weaknesses related to study design, sample size, data analysis, and mono method bias. Nevertheless, disease-specific HRQOL measurement scales are now emerging, and a validated process might provide a better assessment of outcomes in skull base surgery