Assessment quality of life at persons after the knee-joint anterior cruciate ligament damage following the conservative and operative therapy

Magdalena Maślanka
Z Instytutu Fizjoterapii Uniwersytetu Rzeszowskiego

Abstract

Background: Injuries of cruciate ligaments became to be a subject of many researches within last twenty years. None of articular pathologies did arouse so great controversy, both with reference to the diagnostics and therapy. The purpose of this work was a performance of comparative analysis concerning issues quality of life of people next to breaking of cruciate ligament of fore knee-joint, depending on kind of treatment. Material and methods: The studies covered 40 persons — patients, whose fore cruciate ligaments ‘were injured. 20 of them were put to the conservative treatment, and the remaining 20 — to the operable treatment (reconstruction of injured ligament). Patients were 17 — 36 years old. 14 of them were women, and 26 males. Studies were made in Silesia and Podkarpacie, from July 2006 t0 March 2007. They stayed in hospitals, in orthopedics and rehabilitation wards, as well as in sanatorium. The studies were made on the basis of questionnaire consisting of 37 questions, where anamneses and subjective estimation of factors impacting examined persons’ quality of life were taken into consideration. The questionnaire was made on base IQOLA SF-36 and QLO-C30. Results: The questionnaire surveys included 40 persons who suffered from the knee-joint anterior cruciate ligament damage. Most of them were males. Half of the patients underwent the operation of reconstruction of the anterior cruciate ligament, and the other half underwent the conservative therapy. In both groups, majority of patients lived in towns and did white-collar jobs. All of them practiced some sports, most of them football, before of operated declare they practice sport now in comparison to those ‘who underwent conservative therapy. Persons from this last group more often feel depression, irritation and discomfort during their daily activities. Conclusions: Quality of life was found to be determined by treatment method. Better results were reached by patients surgically treated, both in the mental and physical range. They better realize professionally themselves, demonstrate better mood, they are more open social contacts comparing with patients treated conservatively. All patients assess their qualities of life's similarly in familiad and financial spheres.

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