Clinical outcomes of childhood craniopharyngioma: can we do better?

Excerpt

Patient-oriented instruments like questionnaires to evaluate a patient’s health-related quality of life (QoL) have become progressively important in recent times, both from a clinical and regulatory points of view [1‐3]. For patients, improving their subjective every day-to-day living is of primordial importance, that is, that they can assume their personal, social and family aspirations, as well as their schooling or working responsibilities and enjoy their leisure time with hobbies or sports activities. If a disease determines impairments or problems like chronic pain, extreme fatigability, loss of vision, difficulties in concentrating or the need for frequent medical check-ups or complex therapeutic regimens, this will mean that the affected individuals will have to change their activities, because they cannot do them anymore due to the physical or psychological issues they are experiencing. Some adapt to their limitations more easily than others, take up new hobbies or accept that their personal or professional aims require a change, and usually will experience a better QoL than those who do not adapt to this new situation. In this latter case, depression often occurs, further negatively impacting on QoL. …