Two-thirds of the studies found that patients who suffered surgical complications had significantly worse postoperative psychosocial outcomes even after controlling for preoperative psychosocial outcomes , clinical and demographic factors .
Surgical complications appear to be a significant and often long-term predictor of patient postoperative psychosocial outcomes .
The results highlight the importance of attending to patients ' psychological needs in the aftermath of surgical complications
OBJECTIVE Surgical complications may affect patients psychologically due to challenges such as prolonged recovery or long-lasting disability .
Psychological distress could further delay patients ' recovery as stress delays wound healing and compromises immunity .
This review investigates whether surgical complications adversely affect patients ' postoperative well-being and the duration of this impact .
The Association Between Early Outcome, Health-Related Quality of Life, and Survival Following Elective Open-Heart Surgery
We investigated the impact of perioperative complications on patients ' health-related quality of life ( HRQL ) and intermediate-term survival after cardiac surgery . Improved results for cardiac surgery are well demonstrated in low rates of operative mortality and morbidity . However , the association between perioperative morbid events , HRQL at 1 year , and survival is unclear . We performed a prospect i ve study among 836 elective cardiac surgery patients to assess the impact of perioperative outcomes on survival and HRQL at 1 year . Health-related quality of life  was generated using the 20-item short-form question naire . Kaplan-Meier and life-table estimates were used to examine the relationship of HRQL at 1-year and intermediate-term survival . All HRQL domains were statistically improved at 1 year , with the highest gains in general health perception ( + 19.4 % ) and the least gains in social ( + 5.1 % ) and mental ( + 5.1 % ) domains . Patients experiencing 1 or more perioperative complication or increased length of stay reported similar HRQL scores as patients with no complications . Patients with negative changes in social ( 94.5 % vs 99.2 % , P < .001 ) and general health perception ( 99.4 % vs 95.5 % , P < .001 ) domains showed a reduced survival compared with patients with positive HRQL gains at 2 to 5 years after surgery . Perioperative complications had minimal or no effect on HRQL at 1 year after cardiac surgery
Two-thirds of the studies found that patients who suffered surgical complications had significantly worse postoperative psychosocial outcomes even after controlling for preoperative psychosocial outcomes , clinical and demographic factors .
Surgical complications appear to be a significant and often long-term predictor of patient postoperative psychosocial outcomes .
The results highlight the importance of attending to patients ' psychological needs in the aftermath of surgical complications
OBJECTIVE Surgical complications may affect patients psychologically due to challenges such as prolonged recovery or long-lasting disability .
Psychological distress could further delay patients ' recovery as stress delays wound healing and compromises immunity .
This review investigates whether surgical complications adversely affect patients ' postoperative well-being and the duration of this impact .