Table 3.

The symptom total summary score.

POD	n	Mean score (SD)
2	53	17.7 (9.1)
3	61	11.8 (6.6)
4	70	10.3 (7.1)
5	65	8.0 (6.1)
6	71	6.9 (4.9)

The Symptom Total Summary Score was calculated for each patient by summing the symptom scores for a given POD, and then transforming the score so that it ranges from 0 (no symptoms) to 100 (worst possible rating for every symptom). This type of score is sometimes called a “POMP” score (Percent Of Maximum Possible), and it is a convenient way to quantify a patient-reported outcome into a meaningful metric with an intuitive interpretation.

For example, in the table, the POD 2 mean of 17.7 which indicates that patients reported an average of 17.7% of the maximum possible symptomatology on the survey. This consistently decreased over time to a low of 6.9% at POD 6.