WOFAPS 2025 8th World Congress of Pediatric Surgery

Maryam Ghavami Adel, Mobina Taghva Nakhjiri, Nazila Shahmansouri, Mamak Shariat

Tehran University of Medical science

Background: Anorectal malformations are congenital defects of anus and rectum which require surgery as their first treatment option. The existence of comorbidities along with the post-operative complications, alters the patients' health and influences their quality of life.
Objectives: The primary objective of this study is to assess the Quality of Life (QOL) of children who have undergone surgery for ARM.
Methods: All the children aged 6-12 years old who had undergone surgery for ARM between 2012 and 2023 at our medical center were included in this clinical study. The patients' demographic data were extracted from the hospital's recorded file. The parents of these children participated in the study and completed the PedsQL 4.0 questionnaire over the telephone. The collected data underwent data-analysis by SPSS software, version 26.
Results: The mean age of the participants during the study period was 8.63 ± 1.69 years. The mean age at the time of the surgery was 8.87 ± 14.5 months. The average length of stay in the hospital was 11.24 ± 5.57 days. The mean of the total QOL score of the participants was 92.65 from 100. The mean of physical, emotional, social, and school subdomains was 97.09, 87.07, 94.46, and 89.35 from 100, respectively. Father's education was related to the emotional component of the quality of life of the children.
Conclusion: We concluded that older children with ARM had a higher social component of QOL. Those who underwent surgery later in infancy had a better emotional component of QOL in the years after surgery.