Measuring outcome in low-priority plastic surgery patients using Quality of Life indices.

292 patients with a variety of "low-priority" conditions completed the Health Measurement Questionnaire self-report instrument (HMQ) on admission for surgery, and again 6 months post-operation. Comparison of the two questionnaires permitted the change in Quality of Life (QoL) to be measured. Overall, of the respondents, 73% gained benefit from surgery in terms of improvement in QoL. The largest gains were in the breast surgery group, but there were individual patients in all groups who gained substantial improvement in QoL. The results suggest that the HMQ is a useful method of measuring benefit in patients admitted for low priority plastic surgery procedures.