Qualidade de vida geral e sexual em pacientes com líquen escleroso vulvar após diferentes tratamentos: convencional versus terapias fotônicas

Abstract

Background: The term Quality of Life (QL), when described in the health area, is directly related to the value of a person's life, both in healthy or ill state, always considering the extent to which the disease affects physically and psychologically, covering larger parameters. Vulvar lichen sclerosus (LEV) is a disease with uncomfortable symptoms that impair daily activities and affect women's mental and physical health, causing their quality of life to be questioned. Objectives: To study the general and sexual quality of life of women diagnosed with LEV before and after treatment with clobetasol propionate, photodynamic therapy or photobiomodulation, using the Female Sexual Distress Scale-Revised (FSDS-R, revised 2005) and World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL – BREF). Methodology: The study was approved by the ethics committee in humans under protocol #768,168 and was performed with 31 patients, randomized in the three treatment described above, with the questionnaires being applied before and after the therapies. The data were checked for normality with the Anderson-Darling test. The WHOQOL- BREF questionnaire score was considered parametric and the General Linear Model 2-way and Bonferroni post hoc test was applied to compare the treatments and the different moments. The FSDS-R questionnaire score was considered non-parametric and the Kruskal-Wallis test was applied. In all tests the significance level α= 5% was considered. Graphical and punctual evaluation of each patient was also performed. Results and Conclusions: There was no significant difference between the groups when the FSDS-R questionnaire was analyzed. On the other hand, the WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire showed significant post-treatment differences between the photonic and conventional groups. Thus, regarding the quality of sexual life, the treatments were similar, and regarding to the general quality of life the laser treatments were more effective.