Parental and Child-Reported Health-Related Quality of Life in Pediatric Patients With Vascular Malformations

Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in pediatric patients with vascular malformations (VaM) remains challenging to measure due to an absence of disease-specific tools and limited correlation with clinical measures. In this cross-sectional study of 50 children with VaM we evaluated self and parental-reported physical and psychosocial HRQoL using the PedsQL tool and analyzed scores according to type of VaM and age categories. We found HRQoL is considerably decreased in children with VaM and perceived similarly by patients and their parents, except for those with simple VaM and ages 13-18 years, who scored physical domains better than their parents. These findings contribute to the adequate clinical care of children with VaM, underscoring the need to identify and understand factors affecting their HRQoL and to improve multidisciplinary care strategies.