Abstract
Abstract: :
Purpose: Evaluating the quality of life in adolescents and adults before and after strabismus surgery. Methods: Thirty (30) patients aged 15 to 56 years old compliant with criteria for esotropia or exotropia strabismus surgery under topical anesthesia participated in this study. Patients were divided into 2 groups – adolescents aged 15 to 21, and adults aged 22 to 56. The quality of life tool National Eye Institute Vision Function Questionnaire (NEIVFQ25), a short form questionnaire consisting of 25 questions addressing 12 aspects of life quality, was applied to all patients one month before, and again one month after strabismus surgery. The Wilcox test was used in the statistical analysis of the study data. The values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant, and 0.05<p< 0.1 tending to significant. Results: Two(2) patients did not come in for any post–operative examination. Seven (7) patients did not complete the NEIVFQ25 for one–month follow–up after surgery. The statistical analysis of the data from the remaining 21 patients yielded the following improvement outcomes: general quality of life (p=0.014); far vision performance (p=0.026); paper development (p=0.029); social activities (p=0.040); mental health (p=0.071); near vision performance (p=0.094). Other descriptive levels: general health (p=0.226); general vision (p=0.265); color vision (p=0.317); dependence/independence (p=0.359); peripheral vision (p=0.655); and ocular suffering (p=0.943). Conclusions: Strabismus surgery significantly improved the performance of the participants in far vision tasks, paper development and social activities providing them with higher level of satisfaction. As the surgery also improved the individual’s esthetics, it is likely to have helped with his/her acceptance by their peers and contributed to raise the level of the individual’s self–esteem, thus improving his/her social relationship. The NEIVFQ25 also showed a statistical tendency of significance (p=0.071) of the positive effect of the surgery on the individual’s mental health. The results of this study suggests that strabismus surgery is not only an esthetic surgical treatment but it has also positive outcomes regarding a person’s physical and mental condition.
Keywords: strabismus: treatment • clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: biostatistics/epidemiology methodology • eye movements