title: [Quality of life en elderly patients undergoing aortic valve replacement: a comparative study with the general Spanish population].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of the study was to compare the quality of life of elderly patients undergoing aortic valve replacement with that of a reference group.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 163 patients aged 75 years who underwent aortic valve replacement were analyzed. Quality of life was evaluated by the Short Form Health Survey test 12 (SF-12). The median follow-up period was 37.4 months. Quality of life follow-up was complete at 95.6% of mid-term survivors. Quality of life data was compared with published data of a sample of the Spanish population (n.1312) of the same age and same sex.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Overall 30-day mortality was 7.4%. The mean SF-12 physical component score and SF-12 mental component score of the study population were 44,69 and 49,88 for woman and 47,38 and 56,19 for men, respectively. Our sample population showed a post operative quality of live comparable with that of the general population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Elderly patients who are candidates to aortic valve replacement represent a high risk population. Nevertheless, the quality of life achieved post-operatively is comparable with that of the general population.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Cirugía Cardíaca, Clínica Capio, Albacete, España. stefano_urso@inwind.it
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Urso
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sadaba
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vives
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beltrame
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trujillo
authors.forename: Gonzalo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Aldamiz-Echevarria
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001021:Aortic Valve / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D019918:Heart Valve Prosthesis Implantation / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011788:Quality of Life; D013030:Spain