QUALITY OF LIFE ASSESSMENT IN PATIENTS WITH CRITICAL LOWER LIMB ISCHEMIA

A.V. Gavrilenko, S.I. Skrylev, E.A. Kuzubova
Department of Vascular Surgery,
Russian Research Center of Surgery,
Moscow, Russia

Dynamics of quality of life was assessed with questionnaire "Quality of Life Index" (Spitzer et al.) in 116 patients with critical lower limb ischemia (CLLI) and lesion of infrainquinal arterial segment. Patients were divided into 3 groups according to treatment modality: conservative therapy, reconstructive surgery and amputation). The questionnaire was filled by a patient during primary visit and then at 3rd, 6th, 12th and 24th month. The analysis of responses showed a significant improvement of life quality in patients with CLLI after conservative therapy compared with amputation patients (p<0.01). At the second year of follow-up a statistically significant difference was revealed between group of arterial reconstruction and group of conservative therapy. Thus quality of life indices in CLLI patients after conservative treatment had reached maximum up to the end of the first year of therapy with following gradual decrease. In the group of reconstructive surgery quality of life scores tend to increase during the whole follow-up period (12 years), while in amputation group indices remained constantly low during the whole period. Changes in quality of life assessed by questionnaire have incomplete correlation with objective measures of therapeutic outcomes but can serve as an additional parameter of treatment effectiveness.

KEY WORDS: quality of life, critical lower limb ischemia.

P. 8-14

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