Rc. Thirlby et al., EFFECT OF SURGERY ON HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH INFLAMMATORY BOWEL-DISEASE - A PROSPECTIVE-STUDY, Archives of surgery, 133(8), 1998, pp. 826-831
Background: Health-related quality of life (HRQL) has increasingly bec
ome a factor in management decisions in patients with chronic diseases
. Objective: To measure the effect of surgical resection on quality of
life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Design: A con
secutive series of patients undergoing surgery for IBD between June 19
94 and December 1997 were prospectively investigated as a cohort outco
mes study. Patients: Data were obtained in 63 patients. The primary di
agnoses were Crohn's disease (n = 36) and ulcerative colitis (n = 27).
Intervention: Patients with Crohn's disease underwent resection with
or without stricturoplasty for intractable disease; all but 3 patients
with ulcerative colitis underwent ileoanal anastomoses with ileoanal
reservoir. Main Outcome Measure: Health status was measured using the
Health Status Questionnaire preoperatively and every 3 months postoper
atively. Results: Preoperative measures of HRQL of the patients were l
ow, with values well below the general population in all 8 scales of t
he Health Status Questionnaire. Postoperatively, HRQL measures improve
d significantly (P<.05) in both patients with Crohn's disease and thos
e with ulcerative colitis, with scores equal to the general population
in most scales. For example, average raw scores for general health in
previously studied patient groups were 59 in patients with asthma, 55
in those with diabetes mellitus, 74 in the general population, and 54
and 73 preoperatively and postoperatively, respectively, in the prese
nt study. Conclusions: The results of this study confirm that HRQL sco
res are low in many patients with IBD referred for operation and HRQL
scores improve postoperatively to levels comparable to those of the ge
neral population. We believe these data justify early surgical interve
ntion in many patients with symptomatic IBD.