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80th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

20.05. - 24.05.2009, Rostock

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Investigations on the Quality of Life Profile of Patients with Dysphagia

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  • corresponding author Benedikt Folz - Karl Hansen Medical Center, Bad Lippspringe, Germany
  • Wiebke Gruber - ENT-Dept., University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany
  • Jochen Werner - ENT-Dept., University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. 80th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery. Rostock, 20.-24.05.2009. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2009. Doc09hno056

doi: 10.3205/09hno056, urn:nbn:de:0183-09hno0569

Published: July 22, 2009

© 2009 Folz et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: The impact of dysphagia on the quality of life has rarely been quantified in the past.

Methods: "Quality of Life"-questionnaires (QoL) were issued to 53 patients with dysphagia, either due to a globe sensation or secondary to treatment for head and neck cancers. Patients with chronic tonsillitis were matched for age and gender and served as control group.Data were also compared to preexisting data from QoL-surveys for patients with other chronic diseases.

Results: QoL-scores showed that head neck cancer patients suffered most severe from dysphagia, especially when compared to data from patients with other chronic diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or cardiac disease. Patients with a globe sensation also scored worse than patients with other chronic diseases. Surprisingly also the control group with chronic tonsilitis showed poor QoL-scores. Reduction of quality of life was evident in all aspects (psyche, physis, social life).

Conclusion: Dysphagia has a severe negative impact on quality of life perception, not only in head and neck cancer patients, but also in patients with globe sensation and tonsilitis. The impact is comparable to other chronic disease like rheumatoid arthritis or severe cardiac disease.

Outline

References

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