1) To measure the proportion of patients with chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) who experience clinically significant improvement after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) in a prospective, multi-institutional fashion. 2) To identify preoperative characteristics that predict clinically significant improvement in quality of life (QOL) after ESS. Prospective, multi-institutional cohort study. Academic tertiary care ...

The aim of this study was to describe patients' experiences and perceived causes of persisting discomfort following day surgery. Earlier research has mainly covered symptoms and signs during a recovery period of up to one month, and not dealt with patients' perceptions of what causes persisting, longer-term discomfort. This study ...

Long wait times for health care have become a significant issue in Canada. As part of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology's Human Resource initiative, a questionnaire was developed to survey patients regarding wait times for initial gastroenterology consultation and its impact. A total of 916 patients in six cities from ...

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the maintenance of physical activity 12 months after two 1-year Internet-based physical activity interventions in patients with RA. METHODS: This follow-up study was a randomized comparison of an Internet-based individualized training (IT) and a general training (GT) programme in sedentary RA patients. Outcome measures included physical activity ...

Quality of life (QoL) may be affected in acromegalic patients, although the role of disease activity is still unsettled. The aim of the study was to assess the QoL of acromegalic patients with a specific questionnaire (ACROQOL). ACROQOL was evaluated in a prospective study (at baseline, at 6 and 24 ...

To examine the effect of an interdisciplinary, out-patient rehabilitation programme for patients with chronic inflammatory arthritis on aerobic capacity and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). One hundred and seventy-four patients, 115 with peripheral arthritis (PA) (91 women, mean age 53 years, disease duration 16 years) and 59 with spondylarthropathies (SpA), ...

BACKGROUND: Very little is known about the range of diagnoses, course of treatment and long-term outcome in elderly patients who choose to receive homeopathic medical treatment. We investigated homeopathic practice in an industrialised country under everyday conditions.The aim of the study was to determine the spectrum of diagnoses and treatments, ...

Written prescriptions of physical activity have increased in popularity. Such schemes have mostly been evaluated in terms of efficacy in clinical trials. This study reports on a physical activity prescription referral scheme implemented in routine primary health care (PHC) in Sweden. The aim of this study was to evaluate patients' ...

Penile microarterial bypass surgery (MABS) may be the only treatment capable of restoring normal erectile function without the necessity for the chronic use of vasoactive medications or placement of a penile prosthesis. Lack of standardization in patient selection, hemodynamic evaluation, surgical technique, and limited long-term outcome data using validated instruments ...

Although the medical outcomes of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV/AIDS are well described, less is known about how ART affects patients' economic activities and quality of life, especially after the first year on ART. We assessed symptom prevalence, general health, ability to perform normal activities, and employment status among adult ...

We evaluated the health-related quality of life (QOL) of patients undergoing anterior skull base tumor resection. The Anterior Skull Base Surgery QOL questionnaire, a disease-specific multidimensional instrument dedicated to this population, was used to collect and prospectively analyze demographic, medical, and QOL data on 48 patients. Thirty-nine patients completed the ...

To investigate the feasibility of longitudinal assessment of functional performance measures in newly diagnosed postsurgical malignant glioma patients. Patients with histologically confirmed, clinically stable, postsurgical, and previously untreated high-grade glioma (HGG) or low-grade glioma (LGG) were studied. Using a prospective design, all participants performed a cardiopulmonary exercise test with expired ...

BACKGROUND: Scant evidence has been reported on the evaluation of quality-of-life (QOL) in patients who had undergone surgical treatment due to pelvic floor prolapse including cystocele. The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of surgical intervention on patients' QOL before and after surgery. METHODS: Between 1997 and ...

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to assess the quality-of-life (QoL) outcomes of patients who had undergone temporomandibular joint (TMJ) discectomy with dermis-fat grafting compared with a cohort of closely matched patients who had not had surgery. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study of 61 patients was undertaken. All ...

BACKGROUND: Treatment of chronic diseases, such as atherosclerosis, usually leads to significant short-term improvement. Mid- and long-term results are not always as satisfactory. That is why improvement of quality of life should be the leading qualification criterion for invasive procedures, which sometimes carry a risk of complications. AIM: To determine ...

AIM: The clinical and electrographic signs of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE) evolve over the first days of life. We examined the evolution of neurological signs over the first 3 days of life, and determined whether serial administration of the Amiel-Tison Neurological Assessment at Term (ATNAT) would predict neurodevelopmental outcome at 24 ...

BACKGROUND: We analysed 5-year treatment with agalsidase alfa enzyme replacement therapy in patients with Fabry's disease who were enrolled in the Fabry Outcome Survey observational database (FOS). METHODS: Baseline and 5-year data were available for up to 181 adults (126 men) in FOS. Serial data for cardiac mass and function, ...

To improve safety in the operating theater, a company of aviation pilots was employed to guide implementation of preprocedural briefings. A 5-point Likert scale survey that assessed the attitudes of operating room personnel toward patient safety was distributed before and 6 months following implementation of the briefings. Using Mann-Whitney analysis, ...

We examined the attribution of primary and secondary emotions in the context of equal status groups with a non-conflictual relationship, that is, Germans and French. In Study 1 (N = 169), we found that in such an intergroup context, there was no differential attribution of secondary emotions but an over-attribution ...

Lower-extremity musculotendinous surgery is standard treatment for ambulatory children with deformities such as joint contractures and bony torsions resulting from cerebral palsy (CP). However, evidence of efficacy is limited to retrospective, uncontrolled studies with small sample sizes focusing on gait variables and clinical examination measures. The aim of this study ...

Quality of life (QoL) has become an important outcome measure for patients with cancer, but results from population-based studies are infrequently published. The objective of this study was to asses QoL in patients who underwent the colorectal cancer (CRC) surgery and to compare it to the QoL of general population. ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Few studies have been concerned with the patient's perception of the outcome of limb lengthening. We describe the psychological and social functioning after at least 2 years of follow-up in patients who had had a leg length discrepancy and who had undergone an Ilizarov limb lengthening procedure. ...

PURPOSE: To quantify the importance that patients and clinicians assign to specific quality-of-life outcomes associated with the treatment of rectal cancer and to demonstrate a clinical application of these data in a computer-based multidimension decision aid (Annalisa). METHODS: For patients, a researcher-administered questionnaire using the time trade-off method was used ...

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to determine what effect, if any, an intervention such as Single-event multilevel orthopaedic surgery (SEMLS) might have on the relative stability of the gross motor function classification system (GMFCS) for cerebral palsy over a 5-year time period. METHODS: Eighty-four children with spastic cerebral ...

OBJECTIVES: Leg lymphedema remains a significant health problem after treatment of vulval cancer. This pilot study explored the feasibility of conducting a larger trial to investigate whether the early use of compression stockings is effective in preventing leg lymphedema. METHODS: Fourteen patients undergoing inguinofemoral lymphadenectomy for vulval cancer were randomized ...

Assess whether the presence of mucosal eosinophilia correlates with surgical outcomes in patients with chronic rhinosinusitis. Prospective cohort. Tertiary medical center. Adult patients with chronic rhinosinusitis were prospectively enrolled, and demographic data and medical comorbidities were recorded. Preoperative quality of life (QOL) was measured by the Chronic Sinusitis Survey (CSS), ...

The incidences of surgery-field disorders such as femur neck fracture and colorectal cancer in elderly persons have increased with the rapid aging of society. In such patients, postoperative delirium is also frequent. Patients should be generally assessed from the aspect of both physical and mental conditions in order to predict ...

BACKGROUND: Arterial Hypertension (AH) is a mass disease, with consequences for the cardiocirculatory system, since its complications raise the rates of morbidity and mortality. Controlling blood pressure (BP) reduces complications and may preserve the quality of life (QOL) of patients. Studies show positive effects of music therapy as an adjuvant ...

BACKGROUND: The aim was to assess the quality of life (QoL) of patients who had surgery for primary lymphoedema. METHODS: A QoL questionnaire was administered to patients who had surgery between 1981 and 2003 (retrospective group) and between 2003 and 2006 (prospective group). RESULTS: The response rate was 70.3 per ...

The purpose of this study is to report on long-term outcomes in a prospective study comparing the quality-of-life outcomes in smokers and nonsmokers undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery. : Prospective clinical trial. A total of 235 patients were prospectively enrolled at a single tertiary academic center. Preoperative Sino-Nasal Outcomes Test ...

BACKGROUND: A small percentage of patients with idiopathic scoliosis undergo surgery, which is only used in the case of the most extreme deformities of the spine and chest and progression of disease despite conservative treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life in patients with ...

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective study of assessment of surgical results using a new outcome measure for cervical myelopathy, the Japanese Orthopedic Association cervical myelopathy evaluation questionnaire (JOACMEQ). OBJECTIVE: To clarify correlations between pre- and postoperative JOACMEQ severity scores for cervical spine operations and grip strength and grip-and-release test, as objective evaluations, ...

Female engorgement weight, oviposition, and molting times of larvae and nymphs of Amblyomma maculatum Koch (Acari: Ixodidae) were studied at various photoperiods under constant humidity and temperature in the laboratory. Ticks were held at photoperiods of 0:24, 10:14, 12:12, or 14:10 (L:D) h from egg through unfed nymphal stage and ...

BACKGROUND: This retrospective study was conducted to compare the treatment and quality of life (QOL) results between radical surgery and definitive chemoradiotherapy (CRT) for stage II-III carcinoma of the esophagus. METHODS: Between 2000 and 2009, 128 consecutive patients were selected for this study in which 72 were treated with definitive ...

The objective of this investigation was to assess the quality of life (QoL) before and after pulmonary lobectomy in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to compare these values with a case-matched population of patients with normal respiratory function. This is an observational analysis performed on a prospective ...

Rhizomes of the perennial herb Paris polyphylla have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for hundreds of years. Agricultural production of the rhizomes requires 7-10 years, which is too long to meet the demand of the medicinal industry. Therefore, studies on improving the yield of the herb and shortening the ...

As left ventricular assist device (LVAD) support duration increases, quality of life (QoL) becomes a concern. We reviewed the QoL in patients on LVAD support for >or=1 year. We retrospectively reviewed our prospective database for patients supported >or=1 year by HeartMate pulsatile- (HM1) or continuous-flow (HM2) LVADs from 2000 to ...

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in quality-of-life following laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) in adults with cholelithiasis. METHODS: Patients were evaluated with the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Gastrointestinal Quality of Life Index (GIQLI) preoperatively and 12 months after LC. Outcome predictors ...

The Swiss Federal Office of Public Health demanded a nationwide health technology assessment registry for cervical and lumbar total disc arthroplasty and for balloon kyphoplasty (BKP) to make a decision about reimbursement of these interventions. The goal of the SWISSspine registry is to generate evidence about the safety and effectiveness ...

This follow-up study evaluated the outcome of sex reassignment as viewed by both clinicians and patients, with an additional focus on the outcome based on sex and subgroups. Of a total of 60 patients approved for sex reassignment, 42 (25 male-to-female [MF] and 17 female-to-male [FM]) transsexuals completed a follow-up ...

OBJECTIVES: Safety belt use (SBU) reduces motor vehicle deaths by 45%. We previously reported that a brief intervention improved self-reported SBU among emergency department (ED) patients at 3 months. We sought to determine if these effects were sustained at 6 months postenrollment. METHODS: This was a prospective, randomized controlled trial ...

Widespread use of carbohydrate counting is limited by its complex education. In this study we compared a Diabetes Interactive Diary (DID) with standard carbohydrate counting in terms of metabolic and weight control, time required for education, quality of life, and treatment satisfaction. Adults with type 1 diabetes were randomly assigned ...

PURPOSE: The study's objective was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of patients with endometrial cancer undergoing surgical staging via laparoscopy versus laparotomy. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The first 802 eligible patients (laparoscopy, n = 535; laparotomy, n = 267) participated in the QoL study in a Gynecologic Oncology Group ...

The World Health Organization-Government of India (WHO-GOI) Guidelines - 2003 for management of chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD) is a consensus statement. However, the outcome and impact of its implementation on quality of life (QOL) among COPD patients has not been studied so far. The patients were randomized to intervention ...

OBJECTIVES: We set out to determine the psychometric validation of a disease-specific health related quality of life instrument for use in chronic rhinosinusitis, the 22 item Sinonasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22), a modification of a pre-existing instrument, the SNOT-20. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: The National Comparative Audit of Surgery for Nasal ...

Osteoporotic hip fractures (HF) are a major cause of morbidity and mortality with increasing familial, social and economic repercussions. The objectives of this paper were to evaluate the status vitae at 6 and 12 months of a cohort of patients with an osteoporotic HF and the risk factors for 12-month ...

PURPOSE: Prospective randomized comparison of the functional and cosmetic results of anterior sagittal anorectoplasty (ASARP) and posterior sagittal anorectoplasty (PSARP) in the management of intermediate anorectal malformations (ARMs) in girls was performed. METHODS: Thirty-eight girls with intermediate ARMs were randomly allocated to group A treated by ASARP technique and group ...

BACKGROUND: The growing numbers of survivors of innovative cancer treatments, such as hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), often report subsequent cognitive difficulties. The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare neurocognitive changes in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) or primary myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) after allogeneic HSCT or ...

OBJECT: The best management strategy for small-to medium-sized vestibular schwannomas (VSs) remains controversial between observation, radiation, and microsurgical resection (surgery). The authors undertook a prospective observational cohort study comparing all 3 therapeutic modalities in patients with VSs, focusing on quality of life (QOL) outcomes. METHODS: All patients in the study ...

INTRODUCTION: The association between erectile dysfunction (ED) and radical prostatectomy (RP) is well established. It is our clinical experience that some men who have functional erections in the days to weeks after RP go on to lose erectile function (EF) after the first 3 months postsurgery. AIM: To assess EF ...