Review article
Quality of life after laparoscopic and open surgery

Introduction: The parameters describing the postoperative period appear to be imprecise and incomplete to enable the comparison of open and videoscopic approaches. However, the obtained results were not always in accordance with subjective satisfaction of the operated patients. Aim: We attempted to answer the following questions by browsing the methods based on self-assessment of the postoperative quality of life assessment of the patients: are videoscopic procedures really minimally invasive what is the difference in postoperative convalescence after open and videoscopic procedures; and finally how does it influence full social and professional recovery? Methods and material: Medical databases Medline and PubMed were employed to review the literature. Articles from the last decade describing quality of life after individual open and videoscopic procedures were included in the study. The publications were categorized according to scientific significance scale established by Sackett, with a preference for prospective randomized trails. Results: The randomized studies indicate the improvement of quality of life in the early postoperative period after videoscopic procedures in patients suffering from gastroesophageal reflux, cholecystolithiasis, malignancies of the small and large bowel, abdominal and inguinal hernias as well as after bariatric and gynaecological surgical procedures. Superiority of the laparoscopic approach was also proved in some diseases of the spleen, prostate, kidneys, benign large bowel diseases and esophageal and gastric diseases other than those mentioned above; however, these studies were not randomized and therefore do not have sufficient validation power. Conclusions: In most of the diseases, laparoscopic procedures offer better postoperative quality of life when compared to open procedures. Appropriate selection and unification of methods of postoperative quality of life measurements seems inevitable in the studies leading to the introduction of new videoscopic procedures.