Cardiac surgery is associated with high risks, significant trauma, and long recovery periods. With advances in cardiac surgery techniques, the mortality rate and incidence of complications have been steadily decreasing. Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have gradually become an important area of research in postoperative recovery of cardiac surgery. The use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) in this field helps to reflect patients' physiological, psychological, and social functioning during recovery, and provides scientific evidence for clinical interventions, which may further improve prognosis and enhance patient recovery experience. This paper reviews the dimensions of PROMs in the field of cardiac surgery recovery, the current status of existing PROMs scales, and the progress of their application, while also identifying the limitations of the existing tools. Finally, it explores future research directions for PROMs in cardiac surgery patients.