Gastrointestinal quality of life in children born with gastroschisis

Purpose: The aim was to determine gastrointestinal (GI)-related QoL in children born with gastroschisis (GS).

Methods: Totally, 58/83 families of children (aged 2-18 years) operated for GS at a tertiary pediatric surgical center accepted participation. Children aged 5-18 and one parent (child aged 2-18) completed the Swedish version of the PedsQL™ gastrointestinal symptoms module, evaluating GI-related QoL with 14 different GI-specific scales, norm values for Hirschsprung's disease (HD), esophageal atresia (EA), and functional constipation (FC) that were used for comparison.

Results: Children with GS had significantly lower parent-reported scores on "Gas and bloating" compared with children with EA (77.0 vs 85.5, p = 0.039). In the child report and in the parent report, scores on several GI scales were like those of children with EA. Parents of children with GS had higher scores for 8/14 scales compared to HD and higher scores for 12/14 scales compared to FC. Clinical GS-specific factors for worse GI-QoL were identified, including "Days in ventilator" and "Days with Silo and Patch".

Conclusions: GS has an impact on GI-related QoL, comparable to that in EA, but not to HD or FC. The GS-specific factors of worse QoL show the importance regarding a GS follow-up program including considering clinical factors.