[Quality of life after radical cystectomy - an overview and analysis of a contemporary series].

OBJECTIVE

Published evidence does not support a clear advantage in quality of life for continent versus incontinent urinary diversion or vice versa.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We retrospectively assessed 61 patients after radical cystectomy with the EORTC-QLQ-C30 and -BLM30 instruments. Analysis was performed in dependence of age, sex, technique of urinary diversion and time-course of therapy.

RESULTS

36 patients had an incontinent and 20 patients a continent urinary diversion. Younger patients (p = 0.001) and those with a continent urinary diversion (p = 0.03) were found to have a statistically significant higher incidence of financial problems. Also patients with continent urinary diversion had significantly (p = 0.032) more problems in social integration. Furthermore, there were significant differences in social integration (p = 0.03) and emotional ability (p = 0.008) in the age-dependent analysis. Patients with a continent diversion had significantly more meteoristic problems (p = 0.007).

CONCLUSION

This study also could not demonstrate any clear differences in dependence on the technique of urinary diversion. A good postoperative quality of life seems possible independent of age.