Patients with vascular malformations have poor health-related quality of life

Bottom Line: Patients with vascular malformations, which include blood vessel, artery and lymph vessel abnormalities, appear to have more pain and mental health distress than the general U.S. population and that can contribute to poor health-related quality of life.

Why The Research Is Interesting: A lower health-related quality of life has been associated with patients with vascular malformations, which can be disfiguring. This article sought to gather a quantitative measure of health-related quality of life from patients with vascular malformations by reviewing studies that used validated measures, such as surveys and questionnaires, and to compare that with the general U.S. population.

Who, What and When: 692 patients with vascular malformations from 11 studies identified after a comprehensive search of studies from 1946 to 2017

How (Study Design): This was a meta-analysis. A meta-analysis combines the results of multiple studies identified in a systematic review and quantitatively summarizes the overall association between the same exposure and outcomes measured across all studies.

Authors: Megha M. Tollefson, M.D., of the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, and coauthors

Results: Patients with vascular malformations had lower scores on a heath survey suggesting they had increased bodily pain and mental health distress than the general U.S. population.

Study Limitations: The ability to make inferences from this systematic review and meta-analysis are limited.