Psychological Factors Affecting Outcomes After Elective Shoulder Surgery

To optimize outcomes following elective shoulder surgery, it is important to address not only the injury or pathology itself, but also the cognitive and emotional factors that may influence a patient's recovery. Depression, anxiety, catastrophic thinking, distress, somatization, and decreased self-efficacy are among the most common psychological factors associated with adverse perioperative events and poor postoperative outcomes. Such factors may manifest at any point during recovery. Validated questionnaires can be used to measure psychological factors preoperatively, thereby enabling earlier intervention that may mitigate any potential negative effect of these factors on the patient's overall outcome. Orthopaedic surgeons must be sensitive to the influence of stress, distress, and limited coping strategies on patients and should learn how best to mitigate the detrimental effects of these factors on outcomes after elective shoulder surgery.