O. LONGO’s research while affiliated with Faculty of Medicine of São José do Rio Preto and other places

Amputations of lower limbs are mutilating surgeries which interfere with the daily lives of the patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life of these patients. Thirty consecutive patients who had previously undergone amputation of a lower limb and went to the ambulatory for follow-up were included in this study. Twenty-one of the study group were male and the remaining nine were female, with ages ranging from 26 to 77 years (mean age 5 54 years). The causes of the amputations were arterial insufŽ ciency (28 patients) and trauma (two patients). After clinical evaluation and consent was acquired, they were assessed by psychologists and submitted to the quality of life test, SF-36. For statistical analysis, the Mann-Whitney test, (p , 0.05, conŽ dence interval 95%) was used. The statistical analysis showed that the quality of life was unsatisfactory for the members of this group compared to the control group in six out of the eight topics investigated. The physical capacity (p , 0.0001), physical aspects (p , 0.0001), emotional aspects (p , 0.0009) and social aspects (p , 0.0001) were all considered extremely signiŽ cant, the pain (p , 0.0052) was considered very signiŽ cant and the general state of heath (p , 0.0260) considered signiŽ cant. The satisfactory aspects were mental health (p , 0.7449) and vitality (p , 0.7617). The quality of life is prejudiced in patients who suffered amputations of lower limbs. Introduction

Evaluation of the health-related quality of life (QOL) is becoming commonplace, seeking to provide information about the everyday well-being of a patient. This work examined the QOL of 23 consecutive patients with lymphedema of the upper or lower extremities. Five were men and the other eighteen were women. Their ages ranged from 19 to 74 years (mean 48.3). After clinical examination, and with informed consent of each patient, they were assessed by a psychologist and submitted to a QOL test (SF-36). For controls, twenty-three women and five men with age range of 28 to 66 years (mean 47) were similarly evaluated. The results showed the lymphedema group had a statistically significantly reduced QOL in both physical and mental health as well as social interaction.