[Quality of life after trauma surgery interventions].

Integral factors of a patient's Quality of life include the absence of pain, unimpaired mobility, intact capacity to think and judge, as well as access to a good social environment. Surgery for injuries provides a prime example of how much surgery can influence the quality of life. The abrupt change from psychosomatic integrity to a more or less reduced quality of life, especially in trauma patients, is particularly upsetting to the patient. Thus all possibilities of effecting a rapid change together with improvement by operative measures are especially important. Injured patients expect an operation to give quick and, if at all possible, complete reinstatement of the their condition before the injury. The great progress that has been made in surgery, especially in accident surgery, however, should not delude us that there are still technical and biological limits to full recovery.