Table 3. Association between the surgical approaches and specific answers to questions related to HRQoL issues.
| Question | Grouped surgical approaches | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Did the erectile function change in comparison to before the fistula repair? | Abdominal (*) | Perineal | Transphincteric (#) | TOTAL (n=36) | p-value | |
| Yes | 8 (80) | 6 (54.6) | 2 (13.3) | 16 (44.4) | 0.0003 | |
| No | 2 (20) | 5 (45.4) | 13 (86.7) | 20 (45.6) | ||
| How would you describe your quality of life, if it was never going to change again? | ||||||
| Excellent | 1 (9.1) | 0 | 7 (46.7) | 8 (22.2) | ||
| Satisfied | 6 (54.5) | 6 (60) | 5 (33.3) | 17 (47.2) | ||
| Mainly satisfied | 4 (36.4) | 2 (20) | 3 (20) | 9 (25) | 0.039 | |
| Dissatisfied | 0 | 2 (20) | 0 | 2 (5.6) | ||
| Very dissatisfied | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Would you have the same surgery performed again, if required? | ||||||
| Yes | 6 (54.5) | 9 (90) | 14 (93.3) | 29 (80.6) | 0.05 | |
| No | 5 (45.5) | 1 (10) | 1 (6.7) | 7 (19.4) | ||
| How did the fistula repair change your quality of life? | ||||||
| Severely improved | 1 (9.1) | 1 (10) | 8 (53.3) | 10 (27.8) | ||
| Improved | 6 (54.5) | 6 (60) | 6 (40) | 18 (50) | ||
| Unchanged | 1 (9.1) | 1 (10) | 1 (6.7) | 3 (8.3) | 0.05 | |
| Reduced | 1 (9.1) | 2 (20) | 0 | 3 (8.3) | ||
| Severely reduced | 2 (18.2) | 0 | 0 | 2 (5.6) | ||
(*) Abdominal combines abdominal and abdomino-perineal approaches; (#) transphincteric combines posterior and anterior transphincteric approaches