QUALITY-OF-LIFE AFTER OPEN-HEART-SURGERY

Quality of life was studied at mean follow-up time of thirty months by a postal standard questionnaire, which was answered by 95% of patient s. The questionnaire included a visual analog scale (VAS) for self-eva luation of the patient's quality of life. At the time of follow-up 90% of the patients answered that their clinical condition was much bette r or better than before operation. However, only 24.3% of the patients were without any cardiac symptoms at follow-up. The results of the VA S showed that 90.8% of the patients had a higher score (better quality of life) than before operation without any difference between males a nd females, between age groups, or between patients who underwent coro nary artery bypass surgery (the CABG subgroup) and patients who had va lvular replacement (the valve subgroup). A significant relationship wa s found between the degree of symptoms and VAS values and between work ing condition and VAS values of quality of life.