Pancreatic Diseases: The Need to Assess the Quality of Life

Raffaele Pezzilli\r\n

Abstract

The patient’s overall well-being and ability to function is one of the measures capable of quantifying the impact of disease and treatment. Health-related quality of life, as subjectively perceived by the patient, is becoming a major issue in the evaluation of any therapeutic intervention, mainly in patients with chronic diseases. In this paper, the literature regarding the well-being of patients with pancreatic diseases, both acute and chronic, and of patients who undergo surgery for their benign or malignant pancreatic disease will be reviewed. The conclusions that can be drawn from the studies reviewed are that the quality of life should be routinely assessed for evaluating patients with pancreatic diseases.\r\n

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