Duration of Sick Leave, Patient's Postoperative Satisfaction and Impairment of Daily Living after Open Abdominal Myoma Enucleation in Dependence on Myoma Size.

Abstract

Purpose: What is the average duration of sick leave and the postoperative impairment to daily living in dependence on the size of the removed myoma? Does patient satisfaction depend on the size of the removed myoma? Is there a difference in the rate of improvement of symptoms depending on the size of the myoma? Patient Collective: This is a retrospective survey of the data of 377 consecutive female patients treated for symptomatic uterus myomatosus by open abdominal myoma enucleation between 2/2002 and 12/2009; the number of removed myomas, myoma size and localisation, myoma-associated complaints, length of sick leave, postoperative impairments of daily living and scar length were assessed. Results: The response rate amounted to 61 % (230/377 patients). The average sick leave of patients with a myoma diameter ≥ 10 cm was 1.5 days shorter than that for patients with myomas < 10 cm. Depending on the symptoms between 7 and 75 % of the patients reported an improvement of their complaints. For those patients with myomas > 10 cm the proportion with an improvement in symptoms was smaller than that for the patients with smaller myomas - exception "feeling of pressure in the bladder". Conclusions: Even for relatively large myomas, the quality of life is not impaired more strongly or for longer periods than that after removal of smaller myomas. Activities of daily life are impaired for about 4 weeks.