Surgical results of microvascular decompression procedures and patient's postoperative quality of life: review of 139 cases.

Microvascular decompression (MVD) is effective for the relief of symptoms, but little is known about the impact of the MVD procedure on patient's quality of life (QoL) or which QoL factors are important. The surgical results of MVD and the impact of this procedure were evaluated on patient's QoL in 139 patients, 74 with hemifacial spasm (HFS) and 65 with trigeminal neuralgia (TN), who underwent MVD between 2004 and 2011 using the 36-Item Short Form Health Survey questionnaire. Symptoms had resolved in approximately 95% of patients after MVD. The QoL questionnaire was completed by 54 HFS patients and 38 TN patients. Although long-term QoL scores for both groups were comparable to the average national value, scores related to physical role, emotional role, and social function were significantly lower for patients within 12 months of receiving MVD for HFS, compared with the reference scores. Symptomatic improvements and complications were correlated with the QoL scores related to the social function domain for patients with HFS. No other significant relationships were observed between any of the factors or scores in any of the respective domains or periods. Subjective symptoms were the main self-reported causes of delayed recovery of QoL domains. Some QoL domains take a long time to recover and postoperative subjective symptoms might be major causes in addition to delayed relief of symptoms.