Quality of life assessment after antireflux surgery.

Aim of the study: To assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients operated for gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), Patients and methods. This prospective study included 82 consecutive patien ts submitted to antireflux surgery between October 1998 and January 1999. A new questionnaire was used to assess their QoL: the Gastrolntestinal Quali ty of Life Index (GIQLI) that includes 36 items concerning 5 dimensions: sy mptoms, vitality, emotions, social relations and medical treatment. The ser ies consisted of 44 men and 38 women with a mean age of 47 years (range: 18 -78). QoL was assessed before and 6 months after surgery; the follow-up rat e was 94% (77/ 82). The pre- and postoperative GIQLI scores of the study gr oup and the GIQLY score of a control group of 110 healthy patients were com pared. Results: Before surgery, the GIQLI score (90 +/- 23) was greatly impaired c ompared to the score (123 +/- 13) observed in the control group (p < 0.001) . After surgery, the GIQLI score (110 +/- 23) increased significantly (p < 0.001), but remained statistically lower than the score of the control grou p (p < 0.001). The postoperative score recorded in the symptoms dimension w as lower than the control group score: 55 +/- 11 versus 66 +/- 6 (p< 0.001) , while no significant difference was observed in the other 4 dimensions. U nivariate statistical analysis revealed that the postoperative GIQLI score (y) was correlated with the preoperative GIQLI score (x) according to the f ormula: y = 0.43 x + 71 (p < 0.001) and the sex of the patients, as the pos toperative GIQLI score was higher in male patients (115 +/- 19) than in fem ale patients (103 +/- 23) (p < 0.02). Conclusion: The QoL of the patients was greatly improved after antireflux s urgery, but remained lower than that of a control group of healthy subjects . Better patient selection should improve the results. In our series, male patients or patients with a high preoperative GIQLI score were the best can didates for antireflux surgery. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicale s Elsevier SAS.