Izvorni znanstveni članak
The Quality of Life during the Treatment of Long Bone Fractures in Children and Adolescents
Suzana Jonovska
Vesna Šendula Jengić
Ante Kvesić
Eduard Pavlović
Božidar Župančić
Gordan Galić
Miro Klarić
Branka Klarić
Sažetak
This paper evaluates and compares basic emotional reactions towards the illness, as well as the quality of life in relation
to the various types of treatment of isolated long tubular bone fractures of extremities in children and adolescents.
This prospective clinical research comprehends 135 patients (94 males and 41 females), aged 10 to 18, treated for the
mentioned bone fractures in the period from October 2003 till March 2005 at The Departments for Pediatric Surgery of
three hospitals: the Clinical Hospital Centre in Rijeka (88.8% of the patients), the Clinical Children’s Hospital in Zagreb
(9.7% of the patients) both in Croatia, and 1.5% of the patients in the Clinical Hospital in Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
53.3% of the patients were treated conservatively, 29.6% of them underwent the elastic stable intramedullary
nailing (ESIN), while the remaining 17.1% of the patients were treated with other surgical techniques (AO-plates or
Kirschner-wire ostheosyntheses). The basic methods were self-reported questionnaires: the Spielberg State Trait Anxiety
Inventory (STAI1) to establish momentary anxiety and the Short Form-36 Health Survey (SF-36) to evaluate quality of
life, i.e. the perception of the illness during treatment. The STAI1 was administered twice to the patients: within 1 week
of the experienced trauma (at baseline) and 6 months after the trauma, whereas the SF-36 was administered only once,
i.e. a month after the experienced trauma. Our results point at an increased anxiety indicators in all the patients immediately
after the experienced trauma, mostly in patients treated surgically, especially those who underwent the ESIN method;
whereas after 6 months from the experienced trauma the anxiety indicators were greatly reduced. The quality of life
was better in patients who underwent a conservative treatment, both physically and mentally, than in those surgically
treated. This points to the fact that the surgical method itself, despite its type, is an additional stressor which causes additional
anxiety and depressive reaction. Our results suggest (from psychological point of view) that the conservative
method of treating long bone fractures in children and adolescents should be used since it causes less emotional reactions
on the illness ascertaining a better health experience during the treatment than the active surgical treatment (regardless
of the type), which should be practised with criticism and according to strict surgical indications. If the surgical treatment
should be necessarily adopted, we should take into consideration the possibility of psychologically preparing the patients
in order to diminish the psychological reaction on the surgical treatment.
Ključne riječi
adolescents; children; different treatments; long bones fractures; quality of life
Hrčak ID:
34288
URI
Datum izdavanja:
1.12.2008.
Posjeta: 1.426 *