Post-Surgical Quality of Life, Psychological State and what Patients Think about the Effectiveness of Heller Myotomy in the Treatment of Achalasia
<p><strong>Introduction:</strong> The disruption of esophageal motility that characterizes achalasia typically provokes dysphagia, pain, loss of weight and malnutrition. Therefore, patients frequently report a reduction in quality of life and negative emotional states. Laparoscopic Heller myotomy proved to be an effective therapy, enabling the resumption of good quality of life.<br /><strong>Material and Methods:</strong> The authors studied 45 patients previously submitted to laparoscopic Heller myotomy. Postoperative evaluation was performed using a customized version of the achalasia disease-specific quality of life questionnaire. Quality of life and the presence of depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Portuguese versions of the Medical Outcomes Study SF-36 and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.<br /><strong>Results:</strong> Thirty-one patients responded to the survey. Dysphagia was the main clinical symptom before surgery. A clear improvement in dysphagia, regurgitation, pain and weight loss was found after surgery (<em>p</em> < 0.001). The Mental Health domain of SF-36 presented a Pearson correlation coefficient of -0.689 with HADS-D and of -0.557 with HADS-A (<em>p</em> < 0.001 and <em>p</em> = 0.002, respectively).<br /><strong>Conclusion:</strong> This study demonstrates that the Heller myotomy is associated with a good quality of life in patients with achalasia and strengthens the evidence that this is a safe and reliable procedure.</p>