Prospective evaluation of multidimensional health-related quality of life after endoscopic endonasal surgery for pituitary adenomas using the endoscopic endonasal sinus and skull base surgery questionnaire.

OBJECTIVE: Social functioning is an important factor in the evaluation of postoperative health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for pituitary adenoma patients. In a prospective cohort study multidimensional HRQoL of non-functioning (NFA) and functioning (FA) pituitary adenoma patients were evaluated following endoscopic endonasal surgery using the endoscopic endonasal sinus and skull base surgery questionnaire (EES-Q).

METHODS: Prospectively, 101 patients were included. The EES-Q was completed preoperatively and postoperatively (2 weeks, 3 months, 1 year). Sinonasal complaints were completed daily during the first week postoperatively. Preoperative and postoperative scores were compared. A generalized estimating equation (uni- and multivariate) analysis was performed to identify significant HRQoL changes related to selected covariates.

RESULTS: Two weeks postoperatively, physical ( p  < .05) and social ( p  < .05) HRQoL are worse and psychological ( p  < .05) HRQoL improved compared with preoperatively. Three months postoperatively, psychological HRQoL ( p  = .01) trended back to baseline and no differences in physical or social HRQoL were reported. One year postoperatively, psychological ( p  = .02) and social ( p  = .04) HRQoL improved while physical HRQoL remained stable. FA patients report a worse HRQoL preoperatively (social, p  < .05) and 3 months postoperatively (social, p  < .02 and psychological, p  < .02). Sinonasal complaints peak in the first days postoperatively and gradually return to presurgical levels 3 months postoperatively.

CONCLUSIONS: The EES-Q provides meaningful information on multidimensional HRQoL to improve patient-centred health care. Social functioning remains the most difficult area in which to achieve improvements. Despite the relatively modest sample size, there is some indication that the FA group continues to show a downward trend (and thus improvement) even after 3 months, when most other parameters reach stability.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level II-B.