To Operate or Not to Operate? Reconstructive Surgical Burden and Quality of Life of Pediatric Patients with Facial Differences.

The Craniofacial Condition Quality of Life Scale (CFC-QoL) was used to evaluate the relationship between surgical burden and quality of life (QoL). Patient-parent dyads completed the CFC-QoL which queries the following QoL domains: Bullying, Peer Problems, Psychological Impact, Family Support, Appearance Satisfaction, and Desire for Appearance Change. Stepwise multivariate linear regressions were performed for each QoL domain. Urban tertiary care center. Pediatric patients with facial differences, and their parents. Survey study. Demographic, diagnostic, and surgical characteristics were collected. Surgical burden was calculated as the standard deviation from the mean number of surgeries per diagnostic cohort. Patients ( Higher surgical burden was associated with worse QoL outcomes in multiple domains.