THE QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS WITH СHRONIC LOWER LIMB ISCHEMIA

K.G. Abalmasov, Yu.I. Buziashvili, K.M. Morozov, S.A. Papoyan
Department of Microvascular and Plastic Surgery,
A.N. Bakulev Scientific Center of Cardiovascular Surgery,
Moscow, Russia

Sixty-six patients with chronic lower limb ischemia (CLLI) were examined. The mean age of the patients constituted 55.98±7.7 (from 39 to 75 years). There were 64 (96.9%) men and 2 (3.1%) women.

According to the runoff, the patients were distributed in the following way. Twenty-eight (41.8%) patients demonstrated good runoff, 23 (34.855) satisfactory, and 15 (23.2%) patients had poor runoff (according to the classification proposed by R.B.Rutherford). As dependent on the stage of ischemia the patients were divided into 2 groups. Twenty-eight (42.5%) patients presented with intermittent claudication (stage IIB) and 38 (57.5%) patients suffered from critical ischemia (st. III-IV). The quality of life (QL), was assessed using a SF-36 questionnaire and a questionnaire for patients with CLLI. After vascular reconstruction the QL of patients with infrainguinal artery lesion remained significantly low according to the majority of parameters as compared to the normal population. However, comparatively to the preoperative parameters, the QL after operation was significantly improved in all the indicators. The QL of patients with a clinical improvement after operation significantly differed from that in the patient group with a history of unsuccessful operation. In the long-term period, the QL of patients with bypass thrombosis was considerably worse in all the parameters than in patients with patent bypasses. As for the parameters of both questionnaires, the QL of patients with an amputated lower limb was appreciably worse than in patients with saved limbs.

KEY WORDS: chronic lower limb ischemia, quality of life, atherosclerosis.

P. 8-13

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