Impact of Infant Supraglottoplasty on Quality of Life.

Objectives The objective of the present study is to examine the impact of supraglottoplasty on the quality of life (QOL) of caregivers and infants with severe laryngomalacia and moderate laryngomalacia with feeding difficulties. Study Design Prospective cohort study. Setting Tertiary children's hospital. Subjects and Methods Thirty-nine infants who underwent supraglottoplasty were examined. The primary caregiver answered the 47-item short form of the Infant and Toddler Quality of Life Questionnaire-47 pre- and postoperatively; the subsection scores were compared. A 1-way analysis of variance was performed to analyze the effect of age and sex. A comparison was made between our cohort and a general population of healthy children. Results The average age at surgery was 4.0 months, and 53% of the patients were male. There was significant postoperative improvement in overall health, physical ability, growth and development, bodily pain, temperament, emotional impact on the caregiver, impact on caregiver's time, and family cohesion scores ( P < .05). The same subscale scores remained significantly improved postoperatively after age and sex were controlled. Preoperative QOL scores were significantly worse than those of the general population in nearly all categories. Postoperative physical ability ( P = .009) and temperament ( P = .011) QOL scores were higher than the those of the general population. Scores for growth and development ( P = .132), bodily pain ( P = .481), and family cohesion ( P = .717) were equivalent to those of the general population. Conclusion QOL was significantly improved after supraglottoplasty for infants with severe laryngomalacia and moderate laryngomalacia with feeding difficulties. After supraglottoplasty, QOL was similar to that of the general infant population in most categories.