Long-term changes of health-related quality of life in patients with peripheral vascular malformations-a prospective observational study

Purpose: The aim of this observational study was to assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) changes in patients with vascular malformations, over a period of almost eight years, and to assess clinical and demographic characteristics possibly associated with HRQOL changes.Methods: Eighty out of 111 patients who were included in a previously published comparative HRQOL study accepted inclusion in this follow-up study. HRQOL at baseline and follow-up was assessed with the Short-Form 36-item questionnaire (SF-36). Median observation time was 7.9 years. Linear mixed models and linear regression models were applied to assess HRQOL change and possible associations with demographic and clinical variables.Results: The median age of the patient cohort at baseline evaluation ( n = 111) was 27.0 years. Ninety-six out of 111 (86.5%) patients were diagnosed with venous malformations. Sig-nificantly higher SF-36 scores at follow-up were found for the physical domains Role limita-tions due to (RLDT) physical problems (difference = 13.5; 95% CI [1.6, 25.3]) and Bodily pain (difference = 11.3; 95% CI [3.8, 18.8]). No deterioration of HRQOL was found in any domain. In multivariate analyses, female gender, muscle/bone involvement, and higher age were associ-ated with a positive relative change in SF-36 in the domains Physical functioning, RLDT physical problems, and RLDT emotional problems, respectively. Invasive treatment was not associated with long-term HRQOL change. Conclusions: Over a period of almost eight years, significant improvement of SF-36 scores was observed in the physical domains RLDT physical problems and bodily pain. Female gender, muscle/bone involvement, and higher age were associated with HRQOL improvement in certain domains.(c) 2022 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Else-vier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )