Recovery of quality of life after laparoscopic myomectomy

Abstract

Aim It is commonly thought that laparoscopic surgery leads to faster postoperative recovery for its low invasiveness. We evaluated postoperative quality of life (QOL) after laparoscopic myomectomy (LM) by using the Euro‐QOL 5 dimension (EQ‐5D) score and analyzed its relationship to surgical factors. Methods Between 2014 and 2016, 541 patients underwent LM at our institution. We included 86 patients in the final analysis (16% response rate) who replied to the EQ‐5D questionnaire, in order to investigate postoperative QOL. We evaluated patients’ EQ‐5D score before the operation and on the 3rd, 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th postoperative day (POD). We investigated the degree of correlation between the EQ‐5D score and four surgical characteristics (operation time, intraoperative bleeding, number of resected myomas and weight of specimen). We examined correlation between EQ‐5D scores and chief complaints such as hypermenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, other pain, myoma enlargement, palpable tumor and desire for childbearing. We also examined correlation between EQ‐5D scores and other factors such as patient's age, infertility, history of abdominal surgery, marriage and body mass index. Results Full recovery, defined as an EQ‐5D score of 1.0, was reported 2.3% of patients by POD3, 18.6% by POD7, 58.1% by POD14, 73.3% by POD21 and 86.0% by POD28. Longer duration of operation correlated weakly with poor recovery on POD3. Intraoperative bleeding, number of resected myomas and weight of the specimen did not significantly influence EQ‐5D score. There was no correlation between chief complaints or other factors mentioned above and EQ‐5D score. Conclusions More than a half of the patients undergoing LM included in our study reported full recovery of QOL after 2 weeks. The time to recover QOL was slightly influenced by the operation time. However, when LM was finished without any complications, postoperative QOL eventually seemed to improve regardless of the surgical characteristics such as operation time, intraoperative bleeding, number of resected myomas and weight of specimen.

Examining the association between menstrual symptoms and health-related quality of life among working women in Japan using the EQ-5D

“…Evidence generally suggests that menstrual symptoms and disorders are common among women of reproductive age. For example, a study from the UK demonstrated concerns and perceptions of women age [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44] (n = 906), particularly menstrual pains as a major concern (27%), while the judgement as a problem was contingent on social circumstances surrounding respondents (e.g., employment status, type of work, and support received) [11]. An Australian study among women age 20-39 (n = 1575) found that the half (49%) experienced menstrual pains (moderate, severe or very severe), while around one third (28%) reported HMB [13].…”

Short-Term Quality of Life After Myomectomy for Uterine Fibroids From the Compare-UF Fibroid Registry

“…In prior studies comparing route of myomectomy, most women returned to full activities in about 2 weeks after laparoscopic or robotic approaches. 11,12 However, 1 prior prospective observational study noted that 40% of women returned to work more than 8 weeks after laparoscopic myomectomy, which was associated with how long it took the women to reportedly "feel back to normal." 13 The authors hypothesized that laparoscopic surgery was anticipated to shorten recovery, but the greater complexity of laparoscopic procedures performed now may actually result in longer time for recovery.…”

Response to letter to ‘Recovery of quality of life after laparoscopic myomectomy’

“…Dear Editor, The letter by Aref-Adib et al provides interesting additional information on our article 'Recovery of quality of life after laparoscopic myomectomy'. 1 We thank them for their interest in our article.…”

“…As they have mentioned, one of the main limitations of our study is the low response rate to the EQ-5D questionnaire. 1 We cannot deny the possibility that the low response rates introduce some selection biases into the length of recovery period.…”