CHANGES IN HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE AFTER CAROTID ENDARTERECTOMY

Objectives: carotid endarterectomy (CEA) is intended to prevent stroke and therefore to extend lifespan. Whether CEA also influences health- related quality of life (HRQOL) is largely unknown. This study Rimed t o assess HXQOL-changes after CEA. Design: prospective study, data asse ssment within 1 week before and 3 months aft-er CEA. Materials: patien t classification (n=70) was based on presenting neurological symptoms (none (24), transient (26), or permanent (20)), patency or occlusion ( 27%) of the contralateral internal carotid artery and intraoperative s hunt requirement (28%). Methods: HRQOL was investigated with the Sickn ess Impact Profile (SIP). Analysis of variance was used to adjust for the influence of preoperative differences in functional impairment and comorbidity on the changes found. Results: preoperative findings show ed that the SIP scores of stroke patients and shunted patients were si gnificantly higher (indicating poorer HRQOL) than those of the other p atients. No adverse effect of CEA was observed. Analysis of variance r evealed that neurological classification was not reflected to HRQOL ch anges. However, patients with contralateral occlusion showed a signifi cant postoperative improvement (f=4.99, p<0.05). Conclusions: HRQOL im provement after CEA is restricted to patients with occlusion of the co ntralateral carotid artery. Assessment of outcome of CEA should be rel ated not only to neurological classification, but also to haemodynamic factors such as contralateral occlusion.