©

Life after AN surgery

The Jun'99 ANA newsletter has part II of ANA's May 1998 Member Survey, discussing the long-term effects of AN treatments, for surgical and radiosurgical patients:

Long-term problems
after AN treatment

surgery
patients

radiosurgery
patients
Quality
of life

Balance/dizziness
Memory
Concentration
Fatigue
Headaches
Sleeping
Depression

 41%
25%
20%
30%
15%
10%
10%		 22%
9%
4%
13%
4%
6%
2%

Hearing

Hearing loss
Tinnitus

 74%
40%		 47%
24%

Facial

Eye problems
Facial muscles
Facial numbness
Taste or smell
Speech
Swallowing

44%
36%
21%
16%
15%
12%

9%
6%
6%
6%
0%
2%

These numbers are probably higher than in a truly random sample of the population, due to the self-selecting nature of ANA membership. However, the relative distribution of various problems (fatigue vs. depression vs. speech etc.) ought to be the same as in a random sample.  The ratio of surgical vs. radiosurgical problems should also be about the same as in a random sample.

The Sep'99 ANA newsletter has part III of the same survery, focusing on the post-treatment quality of life, covering surgical patients only.   The scores below are computed from the findings in the report:

Aspects of life after AN surgery

Very much
or quite a bit

With difficulty
or not all all
Able to walk
Able to resume normal activities
Able to enjoy things for fun
Symmetrical smile
Content with quality of life
Can perform same job as before

94%
51%
66%
52%
72%
66%

6%
49%
34%
48%
28%
34%

These results are very discouraging indeed. It is also very puzzling why the radiosurgical patients were not covered separately for part III of the survey, as they were for part II of the Member Survey report.  We suspect that the differences in treatment outcomes between the two groups were too glaring for the ANA to publish.

©

Last Edited: Wednesday, October 30, 2002