Editorial Commentary: Threshold Values for Treatment Success-Rotator Cuff Repair Success Lies in the Eye of the Beholder.

Abstract

Successful treatment is the shared goal of patients, surgeons, and clinicians. In the realm of rotator cuff repair, identifying threshold values provides insight into the relation between scores generated from commonly used outcome measures and patient-rated success. These thresholds are useful for separating clinical significance from statistical significance and can help direct future research that aims to examine the effects of different treatments in the context of success. It is important to note that threshold values are sensitive to the sample from which they were drawn. Given the inherent subjectivity of patient-rated success and the diverse nature of patients with rotator cuff tears, there is no single threshold for success but rather a spectrum of threshold values, all of which are dependent on the underlying characteristics of the patients from whom the values were generated.