Bras. [online]. 2011;19(3):149-53. Available from URL:http://www.scielo.br/aob. QUALITY OF LIFE OF PATIENTS SUbMITTED TO

AbSTRACT Objective: To assess health-related quality of life in patients with metastatic vertebral lesion after surgery by the posterior approach. Methods: 32 patients were evaluated (17 female and 15 male) with a mean age of 56.46 years and diagno-sis of metastatic vertebral lesion. Indications for surgery were the presence of progressive neurological deficit (6 patients – 18.75%); incapacitating pain (23 patients-71.87%) or both of these situations together (3 patients – 9.37%). Questionnaire SF-36 was applied, to evaluate the patients ’ quality of life one month and six months after surgery. Results: Statistically sig-nificant differences were observed in domains of functional capacity, pain, mental health, and social aspects of question-naire SF-36. Conclusion: Patients operated by the posterior approach for decompression for metastatic vertebral lesion presented an improvement in quality of life. Level of Evidence: Level II, longitudinal prospective study