MEASURING OUTCOME IN LOW-PRIORITY PLASTIC-SURGERY PATIENTS USING QUALITY-OF-LIFE INDEXES

292 patients with a variety of ''low-priority'' conditions completed t he Health Measurement Questionnaire self-report instrument (HMQ) on ad mission for surgery, and again 6 months post-operation. Comparison of the two questionnaires permitted the change in Quality of Life (QoL) t o be measured. Overall, of the respondents, 73% gained benefit from su rgery in terms of improvement in QoL. The largest gains were in the br east surgery group, but there were individual patients in all groups w ho gained substantial improvement in QoL. The results suggest that the HMQ is a useful method of measuring benefit in patients admitted for low priority plastic surgery procedures.