Aim: Effects of duration of biliary patenting on quality of life in patients suffering from obstructive jaundice.

Methodology: A case control study in OPD of general surgery, Unit-1, Civil Hospital, Karachi, by using non-probability consecutive sampling technique. The sample size is 195 subjects with the age of 20-80 years for both the genders. Ethical approval was taken from the concerned department. 105 patients had a duration upto 12 months since biliary patenting whereas 90 patients had duration >12 months since biliary patenting.

Results: Mean duration since biliary patenting was 11.9±3.7 months whereas 105 (53.8%) of them had biliary patenting within last one year while 90(46.2%) of them had biliary patenting over a year ago. Moreover, their mean total SF-36 quality of life score was 55.2±12.5. There was a statistically significant effect of duration since biliary patenting on quality of life of obstructive jaundice patients (p<0.01) where patients who had biliary patenting within the last year had significantly higher SF-36 QOL scores than patients who had biliary patenting >one year ago.

Conclusion: In obstructive jaundice, quality of life was observed more better in those patients who had a duration upto 12 months than those who had duration >12 months since biliary patenting

Keywords: Obstructive jaundice, Bile duct obstruction, malignant, polyp.