The Effect of Preoperative Stoma Site Marking on Quality of Life in Patients Undergoing Ostomy Surgery

No information currently exists in the literature that discusses the effect that preoperative selection of stoma site may have on patient quality of life.  The purpose of this study was to determine if preoperative stoma site marking by a WOC nurse affects patient quality of life.  This study used a descriptive design with a convenience sample of 25 ostomy patients who had undergone ostomy surgery at a 600 bed tertiary care hospital.  Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data.     Sixty-three surveys were mailed to study participants after being identified by ostomy Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes.  The response rate was 40% (n=25).  Ten subjects (40%) had their stoma site marked by a WOC nurse preoperatively and fifteen subjects (60%) did not.  Eleven participants reported that their ostomy was permanent (44%), while fourteen of the participants (56%) state they had a temporary stoma.  Thirteen of the subjects had elective ostomy surgery (52%) and twelve (48%) had an ostomy created under emergent conditions.  The mean age of the sample size was 55.3 years, with 56% of the sample being male.      Overall quality of life scores did not differ between the marked and unmarked subjects.  However, subjects who did not have their stoma site marked preoperatively had greater problems with pouch leakage (p=.0055) than those who were marked preoperatively.  The sample size for this study was too small to detect a difference in quality of life between the marked and unmarked subjects.  Further research with a larger sample size is needed to support these findings.