Health-related quality of life in patients reliant upon mitrofanoff catheterisation

Aim of the study was determine health care outcomes from the patients' perspective in patients reliant on Mitrofanoff catheterisation for bladder emptying.

Patients over the age of 16 dependent on Mitrofanoff catheterisation for bladder emptying were asked to complete a health care outcome questionnaire, the SF-36 (®) Health Survey v2. Quality of life measures for 8 health concepts were compared against published data for the normal population.

Out of a total of 25 patients who were eligible for enrolment into our study, we were able to contact 19 patients. The norm-based score for Physical Functioning (PF=50.4), Role Physical (RP=53.8), Bodily Pain (BP=55.6), Vitality (VT=56.9), Social Functioning (SF=51.5), Role Emotional (RE=52.2), and Mental Health (MH=54.6) were all higher than those reported within the normal population (normal=50.0). Physical and mental component summary measures were higher than in the normal population. When compared against age-matched norms our patient group scored higher than the normal population for all measures except Physical Functioning (50.4 vs. 53.4) and physical component summary (51.9 vs. 53.5). The self-reported scores for Vitality, Mental Health and the mental component summary were all statistically significantly better than those seen in the age-matched control population (p<0.01).

Quality of life in patients dependent on Mitrofanoff catheterisation for bladder emptying is good. The SF-36 measures 8 major health care outcomes and in our patients these measures of health were similar to those seen in the general population, rather than the poorer outcomes reported in patients with other chronic medical conditions.