ANZ Society for Vascular Surgery: Vascular 2004, Rotorua, New Zealand, September 2004: selected abstracts

In addition to the traditional hard end points of morbidity and mortality rates, the success of surgery can be assessed in many other ways. One parameter that has received limited attention in the evaluation of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair is the assessment of effects on quality of life (QOL). Methods: The QOLOSAR study (Quality of Life after Open and Stent-graft Aneurysm Repair) is a prospective, non-randomized investigation comparing the effect of open surgical AAA repair with endovascular AAA repair on quality of life at 1-week, 1-month, 3-months, 6-months and 12-months following repair. QOL over the same period in a subgroup of patients not undergoing repair is also being assessed. QOL is being assessed with various generic tools including the SF-36, which includes eight health status scales (namely, physical functioning, role-physical, bodily pain, general health, vitality, social functioning, role-emotional, and mental health). Results: To date 75 patients have been enrolled, including 50 in whom AAA repair is planned. At baseline, patients with AAA had SF-36 QOL scores lower (P less than 0.05) than Australian normal values for all health domains except mental health. One week following AAA repair, there was a significant reduction in all health scale measures, except for the role-emotional (P = 0.06) and general health (P = 0.35) scales, compared with baseline. Subject numbers are not yet sufficient to allow comparisons between the open and endovascular repair groups