Quality of life assessment for rectal cancer patients: A comparison between sphincter preservation and permanent colostomy

This study aims to compare the quality of life in patients with rectal cancer between sphincter preservation and permanent colostomy. The present study is a cross-sectional study that was performed on 120 patients (60 cases in the sphincter maintenance group and 60 cases in the permanent colostomy group) who underwent surgery from February 2017 to November 2016. Quality of life assessment was provided with QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR29 questionnaires. Finally, the collected data were analyzed using SPSS23 software. According to the results of the QLQ-C30 questionnaire, there was no statistically significant difference in patients’ quality of life in terms of performance in the study groups (P˃0.05). Symptoms such as nausea, pain, shortness of breath, sleep disturbance, loss of appetite, constipation and economic problems in the study groups were not statistically significant (P˃0.05). But the mean symptoms of fatigue (P=0.038) and diarrhea (P=0.037) were significantly higher in the sphincter maintenance group than the permanent colostomy group. The mean score of patients’ quality of life was 53.43 ± 8.40 in the sphincter retention group and 52.23 ± 11.45 in the permanent colostomy group (P = 0.556). According to the results, the quality of life in the two surgical methods of sphincter preservation and permanent colostomy was not statistically significant. Therefore, treatment decisions should be made by informing patients, both based on their preferences and the physician’s clinical judgment.