Vision-related quality of life after surgery for vitreoretinal disorders in a Mexican population: an observational study

Abstract

Visual-related quality of life in retinal diseases has not been explored in the Mexican population, so the study aims to identify it in patients undergoing surgery due to advanced diabetic retinopathy, rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, and other causes of vitrectomy; the Visual Function Quality-25 questionnaire was applied to 76 patients, pre-and postoperative. It was divided into 10 domains and interpreted according to the National Eye Institute scores, where the highest value was the best visual function. Student's t-test for related samples and Wilcoxon’s t-test were used to compare each domain between measurements, and Pearson’s R test to correlate the total score of age and quality of life; a p value < 0.05 was considered significant. Diabetic retinopathy patients showed an improvement 1 and 3 months after surgery in all domains; in rhegmatogenous retinal detachment, there was an improvement observed up to 3 months, while a decrease in ocular pain was observed in other causes of vitrectomy. Differences found in all the quality-of-life scores were not statistical, but clinically significant. The study shows that visual-related quality of life domains improves after vitrectomy; the inclusion of this analysis might be considered relevant within the parameters of surgical success of the most prevalent vitreoretinal diseases.