[Quality of life en elderly patients undergoing aortic valve replacement: a comparative study with the general Spanish population].
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.
Urso
Stefano
S
Departamento de Cirugía Cardíaca, Clínica Capio, Albacete, España. stefano_urso@inwind.it
Sadaba
Rafael
R
Vives
Manuel
M
Beltrame
Sergio
S
Trujillo
John
J
Aldamiz-Echevarria
Gonzalo
G
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