Abstract:Perioperative rehabilitation aims to alleviate symptoms, restore function, and improve quality of life. These goals largely involve subjective patient experiences, which are not fully captured by traditional outcome measures. In recent years, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have emerged as essential tools to quantify patients' perceptions of health and have been widely used in drug and device clinical trials. This review summarizes the current applications of PROs in general surgery, including symptom description, comparison of surgical methods, complication warning, and patient management. Practical cases and evidence from domestic and international studies are discussed. With the integration of electronic PROs (ePROs), artificial intelligence, and natural language processing, future efforts should focus on developing localized, specialty-specific tools and establishing stronger correlations between PROs and clinical outcomes to support the transition from disease-centered to patient-centered surgical care.