Quality of life study in patients with nodular and multinodular forms of euthyroid goiter

Objective. To study and estimate the quality of life in patients with nodular and multinodular forms of euthyroid goiter prior to the surgery and in different postoperative periods.

Materials and methods. The method of random study was used to examine 100 patients with nodular and multinodular forms of euthyroid goiter, who were treated at Perm Regional Treatment and Diagnostic Center “Center of Hepatic and Endocrine Surgery” in 2009–2017. To study patients’ quality of life, SF-36 survey was used. The quality of life indices were assessed prior to the surgery, 1 and 6 days after the surgery as well as 3 and 6 postoperative months.

Results. The quality of life in patients with nodular and multinodular forms of euthyroid goiter is subjected to the influence of not only preoperative factors but also factors, occurring in both early and long-term postoperative periods. Special attention is to be paid to psychological factors of the preoperative period. Three and six months after the surgery, patients with initial compression of cicatricial deformity of the neck organs had improved psychoemotional indices.

Conclusions. Studying of the quality of life permits to estimate the efficiency of surgical treatment in patients with thyroid diseases. Relative decrease in the quality of life indices among patients with nodular and multinodular forms of euthyroid goiter are most evidently manifested in the early postoperative period. In case of favorable course of the postoperative period, improvement of physical activity is observed in 5 days, psychological – in six months. Six months later, the quality of life indices in patients with both forms of goiter did not differ from those in the comparison group.