| Assessment of Quality of Life after Craniotomy in Elderly Brain Tumor Patients |
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Young Deok Kim , Bok Neu Yu , Jae Taek Hong , Jae Hoon Sung , Sang Won Lee , Seung-Ho Yang |
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Department of Neurosurgery, Suwon St. Vincent’s Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea |
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| Abstract |
Objective
The objective of this study was to compare the preoperative and postoperative quality of life (QoL) of elderly patients with brain
tumors and identify the factors associated with improved QoL.
Methods
A series of patients who presented at a single institution between 2009 and 2012 and met the study criteria of (1) age over
69 years, (2) new diagnosis of brain tumor, and (3) subsequent surgical treatment was enrolled. Assessment of preoperative and 4-week postoperative
QoL was performed using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core
30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) and Brain Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-BN20).
Results
Among the 19 patients (6 men and 13 women; mean age, 73.2 years; range, 70-79 years) who met the study criteria and were subsequently
enrolled, the most common presenting symptoms were headache (42.1%) and motor weakness (36.8%). The factors of extent of resection
and type of lesion were found to significantly affect postoperative global QoL score, with the score of patients who had undergone total resection
and/or had extra-axial lesions found to significantly better than that of patients who had undergone partial resection and/or had intraaxial lesion
(p-values, 0.005 and 0.002, respectively). Although no significant differences were found between preoperative and 4-week postoperative
QoL in terms of EORTC QLQ-C30 and BN 20 domains, the score for the headache domain was found to improve postoperatively (p-value,
0.090).
Conclusion
Elderly brain tumor patients experience no significant impairment in QoL after surgical treatment, and patients who have extra-axial
tumor or undergo total resection experience better QoL postoperatively compared to patients who have intra-axial tumor or undergo partial
resection. Surgical resection safely performed as to impose no additional neurological deficit leads to optimal improvement in functioning
and preservation of QoL in brain tumor patients, even in elderly patients. |
| Key Words:
Brain tumorㆍCraniotomyㆍAgingㆍEORTC QLQ-C30ㆍQuality of life |
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