Quality of life in stoma patients: appropriate and inappropriate stoma sites

The objective of the cross-sectional study reported here was to compare the quality of life of patients with an appropriate stoma site and with that of patients with an inappropriate stoma site.

Two groups of patients with permanent intestinal stomas were assessed, 174 patients with appropriate stoma sites and 174 patients with inappropriate stoma sites. We used the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the EORTC QLQ-CR38, which evaluate 26 quality of life (QoL) scales. Data analysis was performed with SPSS software.

From a total of 9 functional scales, 3 scales in patients with an appropriate stoma site were significantly higher than in patients with an inappropriate stoma site: sexual enjoyment (71.2% vs. 63.2%; p = 0.02), physical functioning (74.3% vs. 68.2%; p = 0.005), and role functioning (74.3% vs. 64.4%; p < 0.0001). From the total of 16 symptom scales, patients with an inappropriate stoma site had significantly more problems than patients with an appropriate stoma site in 8 scales: micturation (27% vs. 22.5%; p = 0.04), gastrointestinal problems (32.6% vs. 27%; p = 0.01), weight loss (36.5% vs. 29.2%; p = 0.03), dyspnea (25.95% vs. 12.5%; p = 0.0001), pain (39.3% vs. 29.6%; p = 0.001), fatigue (43.5% vs. 34.5%; p < 0.0001), nausea and vomiting (18.15% vs. 12.8%; p = 0.03), and insomnia (39.8% vs. 31.1%; p = 0.01). Patients with an appropriate stoma site scored global QoL significantly higher than those with an inappropriate stoma site (56.2% vs. 49.7%; p = 0.007)

A perfectly placed intestinal stoma is strongly related to good QoL for affected patients. From the total of 26 QoL scales assessed in the study, patients with appropriate stoma sites achieved better results in at least 50% of the scales.