[Long-term results of abdominal surgery interventions. Different evaluation from the viewpoint of the patient, the surgeon and the public health office].

The patient, the surgeon and the public health officer (Versorgungsamt) assess the long-term results of abdominal operations differently. We tried to objectivize these different assessments. The clinical data were collected retrospectively. Data on postoperative subjective state and degree of handicap were obtained in a written patient survey (March 1995). Two groups with benign diseases and one group with malignant disease were examined: 59 patients who had undergone sigmoidectomy for diverticulitis (30 female and 29 male patients, median age: 61.5 years), 347 patients subjected to proximal gastric vagotomy for duodenal ulcers (72 female and 275 male patients, median age: 46 years) and 158 patients who had undergone gastrectomy for gastric carcinoma (56 patients female, 102 patients male, median age: 61 years). The public health officer, classed 35.6% of the patients who had undergone sigmoidectomy and 34.6% of the patients who underwent vagotomy as officially handicapped with a stated grade of disablement, 77.2% of the patients with gastrectomy were officially classed as handicapped. When other diseases were taken into account in addition, 27.1% of the patients who had undergone sigmoidectomy, 27.4% of those who had undergone vagotomy and 75.9% of the patients with gastrectomy had received passes officially identifying them as severely handicapped persons. In the vast majority of cases, the combination of several different ailments had resulted in recognition of a graded handicap and severely disabled person's pass, skeletal, cardiac and circulatory ailments being the most frequent. In spite of this, the evaluation of post-operative course by our patients, the surgeon and the public health officer (as reflected in the official state classification) in terms of the degree of handicap clearly differed.