American orthopedic foot-and-ankle society score, where are we now? – a narrative review of quality of life measures in foot-and-ankle surgery

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score is the mostly widely used quality of life index for foot-and-ankle pathologies. However, there are many shortcomings of the QOL index with respect to validity, reliability, and responsiveness. AIM: The narrative review will examine the AOFAS scoring system and review the outcome measure using the GRADE tool for quality of outcome measure. CONCLUSIONS: Clinicians and researchers should cease using the AOFAS score as it is not a reliable tool. However, the recommendations suggested in this article can be used to upgrade the quality of the scoring system.