Assessment of quality of life in patients undergoing maxillectomy
Güven Yıldırım, Tolgar Lütfi Kumral, Yavuz Uyar, Güler Berkiten, Ziya Saltürk, Mehmet Önder Doğan, Muzaffer İnan
Keywords: Life quality questionnaire, paranasal sinus tumor, surgery.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: This study aims to evaluate the surgical approach to the paranasal sinus tumors and postoperative quality of life of the patients.
METHODS: Between January 2006 and December 2013, 17 patients (7 males, 10 females; mean age 59.3±13.9 years; range 31 to 86 years) who underwent surgery for maxillary tumors were included in this study. Pathological diagnosis after maxilla tumor surgery were made. After surgery, the Short Form-36 (SF-36) questionnaire was applied to the patients who underwent partial or total maxillectomy and were compared between each other.
RESULTS: Fourteen of the patients (82.4%) had partial maxillectomy, while three (17.6%) had total maxillectomy. According to the quality of life SF-36 questionnaire, both physical and mental health components of the questionnaire of the partial maxillectomy patients were significantly higher than those with total maxillectomy (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION: The treatment protocols of paranasal sinus tumors should be tailored individually. Surgeon should be conservative as much as possible, since conservative treatment improves the quality of life of patients with partial maxillectomy.