title: Functional outcome and quality of life 5 and 12.5 years after aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage.
abstract: Patients who recover from aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH) often remain disabled or have persisting symptoms with a reduced quality of life (QoL). We assessed functional outcome and QoL 5 and 12.5 years after SAH. In a consecutive series of 64 patients with mean age at SAH of 51 years, initial outcome assessments had been performed at 4 and 18 months after SAH. At the initial and current outcome assessments, functional outcome was measured with the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and QoL with the SF-36 and a visual analogue scale (VAS). We studied the change in outcome measurements over time. We used the non-parametric Wilcoxon test to compare differences in mRS grades and calculated differences with corresponding 95% confidence intervals in the domain scores of the SF-36 and the VAS. After 5 years, seven patients had died and five patients had missing data. Compared with the 4-month follow-up, the mRS had improved in 29 of the 52 patients, remained similar in 19 patients. The overall QoL (SF-36 domains and VAS score) was better. At 12.5 years an additional six patients had died. Compared to the 4-month study, 25 of the 46 remaining patients had improved mRS, 12 had remained the same and in nine patients the mRS had worsened. Between the 5 and the 12.5 years follow-up, the improvement in mRS had decreased but patients reported overall a better QoL. Among long-time survivors, QoL may improve more than a decade after SAH.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Rudolf Magnus Institute of Neuroscience, Heidelberglaan 100, 3484 CX, Utrecht, The Netherlands. p.greebe@umcutrecht.nl
authors.forename: Paut
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Greebe
authors.forename: Gabriël J E
authors.initials: GJ
authors.lastname: Rinkel
authors.forename: Jeannette W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hop
authors.forename: J M Anne
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Visser-Meily
authors.forename: Ale
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Algra
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality / Q000639:trends; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013997:Time Factors