QUALITY-OF-LIFE AFTER OPEN-HEART-SURGERY

Quality of life was studied at mean follow-up time of thirty months by a postal standard questionnaire, which was answered by 95% of patients. The questionnaire included a visual analog scale (VAS) for self-evaluation of the patient's quality of life. At the time of follow-up 90% of the patients answered that their clinical condition was much better or better than before operation. However, only 24.3% of the patients were without any cardiac symptoms at follow-up. The results of the VAS showed that 90.8% of the patients had a higher score (better quality of life) than before operation without any difference between males and females, between age groups, or between patients who underwent coronary artery bypass surgery (the CABG subgroup) and patients who had valvular replacement (the valve subgroup). A significant relationship was found between the degree of symptoms and VAS values and between working condition and VAS values of quality of life.