Measurement of health-related quality of life post aortic valve replacement via minimally invasive incisions.

BACKGROUND

Minimally invasive aortic surgery is growing in popularity among surgeons. Although many clinical reports have proven both the safety and efficacy from a surgical point of view, there are few data regarding its impact on patients' quality of life and whether there is a difference between ministernotomy and minithoracotomy from the patient perspective.

METHODS

This prospective, questionnaire-based, nonrandomized study included 189 patients who underwent aortic valve replacement via a minimally invasive incision between May 2014 and December 2020 and completed at least 1 year of follow-up. The study uses the RAND SF 36-Item Health Survey 1.0 to assess and compare health-related quality of life between ministernotomy and minithoracotomy.

RESULTS

There was a statistically significant improvement in the minithoracotomy group with regard to physical functioning, role limitation due to a physical problem, and social functioning (79.69 ± 20.72, 75.28 ± 26.52, 87.91 ± 16.98) compared to the ministernotomy group (70.31 ± 22.88, 58.59 ± 31.17, 66.15 ± 27.32) with p values (0.0036, 0.0001, < 0.0001), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Both minimally invasive aortic valve incisions positively impacted patient quality of life. The minithoracotomy incision showed significant improvements in physical capacity and successful patient re-engagement in daily physical and social activities. This, in turn, positively improved their general health status compared to the 1-year preoperative status.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

This study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee (REC) at the Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, under the number code (FWA 000017585, FAMSU R 91 /2021).