Quality of life and patient satisfaction 3 months and 3 years after laparoscopic Nissen's fundoplication.
OBJECTIVE
This study is based on studying the quality of life and degree of satisfaction among gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) patients after Laparoscopic Nissen's fundoplication (LNF) operations.


BACKGROUND
A GERD patient is most interested in symptom relief, whereas his surgeon will also be interested in the improvement of anatomical and functional investigations.


METHODS
One hundred patients with symptoms of GERD, adequate motility study and positive 24-hour pH studies underwent LNF in El-Mansoura Gastroenterology Center between 2002 and 2004. All patients completed the Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease-Health Related Quality Of Life (GERD-HRQL) questionnaire both pre- and postoperatively (early within 3 months after operation and late after 3 years). Furthermore, all patients were given a form with 4 grades (excellent, good, fair and poor) and they were requested to freely assess both the early and late clinical outcomes.


RESULTS
There was statistically significant improvement in all the items of the GERD-HRQL questionnaire, both early and late (P < 0.001). With regard to patient satisfaction; only 58 cases showed excellent clinical satisfaction early postoperatively, while 29, 8 and 5 patients showed good, fair and poor responses, respectively. These figures improved on late followup (P < 0.05), i.e., 76 excellent, 16 good and 8 fair results.


CONCLUSIONS
LNF improves all the items of quality of life among GERD patients significantly (P < 0.001). Patient satisfaction after LNF improves with time; 58 cases showed early postoperative excellent clinical satisfaction as compared to 76 late cases (P < 0.05). However, LNF may not be the standard management of reflux symptoms, particularly from some patients' perspective.
Hamdy
Emad
E
Gastroenterology Surgical Center, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
Abd El-Raouf
Ahmed
A
El-Hemaly
Mohamed
M
Salah
Tarek
T
El-Hanafy
Ehab
E
Mostafa
Mohamed
M
Hak
Nabil GadEl
NG