Gastrointestinal quality of life in children born with gastroschisis
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Read the article on link.springer.com ↗Article · Dec 2024 · 1 min read
In brief
In brief
This study evaluates long-term gastrointestinal quality of life in children surgically treated for gastroschisis, comparing outcomes to other congenital GI conditions. Results show GI-QoL impacts similar to esophageal atresia but less severe than Hirschsprung's disease, with ventilator days and silo/patch duration identified as key factors affecting outcomes.
- Children with gastroschisis have GI quality of life comparable to esophageal atresia patients, but better than Hirschsprung's or functional constipation.
- Gas and bloating symptoms are significantly more problematic in gastroschisis compared to esophageal atresia patients.
- Longer ventilator days and prolonged silo/patch use predict worse GI-related quality of life outcomes in gastroschisis survivors.
- Structured follow-up programs for gastroschisis should incorporate clinical factors like ventilator duration to identify at-risk patients.
- Parent-reported GI symptoms in gastroschisis children show better outcomes across most scales compared to Hirschsprung's disease.
Written by the GCMD Library team from the article.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim was to determine gastrointestinal (GI)-related QoL in children born with gastroschisis (GS).
Methods
Totally, 58/83 families of children (aged 2–18 years) operated for GS at a tertiary pediatric surgical center accepted participation. Children aged 5–18 and one parent (child aged 2–18) completed the Swedish version of the PedsQL™ gastrointestinal symptoms module, evaluating GI-related QoL with 14 different GI-specific scales, norm values for Hirschsprung’s disease (HD), esophageal atresia (EA), and functional constipation (FC) that were used for comparison.
Results
Children with GS had significantly lower parent-reported scores on “Gas and bloating” compared with children with EA (77.0 vs 85.5, p = 0.039). In the child report and in the parent report, scores on several GI scales were like those of children with EA. Parents of children with GS had higher scores for 8/14 scales compared to HD and higher scores for 12/14 scales compared to FC. Clinical GS-specific factors for worse GI-QoL were identified, including “Days in ventilator” and “Days with Silo and Patch”.
Conclusions
GS has an impact on GI-related QoL, comparable to that in EA, but not to HD or FC. The GS-specific factors of worse QoL show the importance regarding a GS follow-up program including considering clinical factors.