Quality of life after iatrogenic bile duct injury - a case control study

Background: BDIs complicate 0.5 - 0.8% of all LCs even after the learning curve and the limited QoL data on these patients are conflicted. The objective of the current study was to compare the quality of life (QoL) of patients who sustained a bile duct injury (BDI) during laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) with a control group who underwent an uneventful LC. Methods: Sixty-one patients were treated for a BDI during 1995 - 2007 at Turku University Hospital. Fifty-one out of 55 available patients (93 %) were reached and QoL was evaluated by 15D questionnaire. QoL outcome was analyzed both according to the type of injury and the type of treatment and compared with a group with similar age and sex distribution who underwent an uneventful LC during the same time period. Results: With a mean follow-up of eight years (range 2-15 years) there were no major differences in QoL between patients with BDI and patients who underwent an uneventful LC. Depression was the only dimension more frequently seen in the control group (P = 0.011), but this difference was not present in the subgroup analysis or in 15D total scores. Conclusions: Even at long-term follow-up BDI does not have a major impact on QoL.