Comparison of Life Quality in Patients Undergoing Open Vein Harvesting and Endoscopic Vein Harvesting Techniques: A Prospective Cohort Study

 As the traditional indicators of the operative outcomes, including morbidity and mortality, cannot give sufficient information on a patient’s physical, mental, emotional, and functional well-being alone, we aimed to compare life quality in the patients under open vein harvesting (OVH) and endoscopic vein harvesting (EVH) techniques after four years of follow-up.

 This prospective cohort study followed all the patients who were scheduled for off-pump CABG in the Mashhad-based Imam Reza Hospital, in October 2013, for 4 years. Accordingly, data related to their quality of life were collected, and their life quality was then compared using the WHOQOL-BREF scale. T-test, chi-squared, Fisher exact test, and relative risk were also used.

 This study was conducted on a total of 103 patients under the two techniques of OVH (n = 53) and EVH (n = 50). The difference between the EVH (4.7%) and OVH (16.3%) groups at the demographic characteristics was the Transient Ischemic Attack (P = 0.023). After a 4-years follow-up period, no significant differences were observed between the patients undergoing the two techniques of OVH and EVH in all the domains of life quality.

 According to the obtained results, there was no difference in the quality of life between the patients undergoing OVH and EVH techniques over a four-year period. In this regard, further investigations are recommended on the quality of life in patients under the two techniques of OVH and EVH with long-term follow-up periods.