Health-related quality of life in adults undergoing transthoracic device closure of ventricular septal defect.

objectiveTo evaluate the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of adult patients who underwent transthoracic device closure of ventricular septal defect (VSD).

methodsDuring the perioperative and postoperative period, a standard scale involving eight dimensions was used to analyze the HRQoL of 85 adult patients who underwent thoracic device closure of VSD and 80 healthy adults located locally were randomly selected as the control group in our center.

resultsA total of 80 patients' and 80 healthy adults' questionnaires were received with complete feedback. Out of all of the items that were investigated, postoperative patients experienced better feelings in some dimensions than the control group. Postoperative feedback was also better than preoperative feedback in some dimensions. In the comparison of the subgroups of these patients, the scores of the elderly were lower than those of the young in most dimensions. Males had more positive feedback in two aspects ("role-physical" (p = 0.01) and "vitality" (p = 0.003)), whereas unmarried people seemed to have poor emotional responses ("role-emotional" (p < 0.01) and "vitality" (p = 0.023)). There was no significant difference in any dimensions except "social functioning" (p < 0.01) between people with different levels of education.

conclusionsMost of the adult patients who underwent thoracic closure of VSD felt that they could lead a normal life. They seemed to have reasonably normal psychosocial responses compared to healthy controls. Many patients even though their HRQoL was better than healthy individuals.