Background: The determinants of quality of life after coronary artery surgery in well defined health care populations are still incompletely understood. The aim of the present study was to assess the health related quality of life associated with coronary artery bypass surgery as performed in a tertiary public hospital, and also to investigate its association with clinical variables.
Patients and methods: All survivors of a first coronary artery bypass grafting operation performed during a calendar year in a single center (100 patients) were included for assessment two years after surgery. Assessment included a review of the clinical records, a structured clinical interview and the administration of three questionnaires of perceived health (Nottingham Health Profile, Duke Activity Status Index and SF-36 Health Survey).
Results: The mean scores of the administered questionnaires corresponded to a moderate overall impairment of perceived health, with wide individual variations. Chronic stable postoperative angina pectoris (28% of patients), worse clinical functional grade (either due to angina or to others causes), comorbidity (51% of patients) and female sex were significantly associated with worse scores.
Conclusions: In the study population, postoperative angina, impairment of the clinical functional grade (due to angina or to other conditions), and female gender were the major determinants of impaired health related quality of life after coronary artery bypass surgery. As such determinants are associated with anatomoclinical variables in the population undergoing coronary bypass surgery and also with perioperative variables, appropriate effectively studies appear to be indicated for the assessment of this surgical procedure.