Free flaps – Are they a boon? A quality of life analysis

Introduction:

We always assess the treatment being administered to the cancer patients in terms of 5-year survival often ignoring the quality of life which the patient has. This study is being carried out in our institution to emphasize on this aspect of patients' life.

Methods:

This ongoing study comprises of 104 patients who underwent surgery for oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma followed by free flap reconstruction at SMS Medical College and Hospital since July 2014. The patients were asked to complete the UW-QOL questionnaire (validated Hindi version). The questionnaire represents the patient's own perception of their level of QOL. Version 4 of the UW QOL, in use since 2000, has 12 domains, a question that asks patients to choose up to three domains of most importance to them and three global questions about their health-related and overall QOL.

Results:

The cohort comprised 104 patients. Mean age was 56.6 years. 82.35% were men and 17.65% were women. T3/T4 advanced tumors were present for 35.29%. All the patients had free-flap surgery and 97 patients (85.08%) had adjuvant radiotherapy.

The patients rated swallowing, speech and chewing as top 3 domains of concern. Overall, when asked what their HRQOL had been like during the previous 7 days, patients replied as: 4 (3.50%) outstanding, 38 (33.33%) very good, 45 (39.21%) good, 20 (17.64%) fair, 5 (3.92%) poor and 2 (1.96%) very poor.

Conclusion:

UW QOL provides an important tool to assess the quality of life a patient leads after he is cured of the disease. The study pins the importance to the patient's aspect of the treatment outcome. Stage of the disease and radiotherapy were seen to affect domain scores.

Publication History

Publication Date:
23 April 2019 (online)