Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the effects of prosthetic use, age, gender, and marital status on the quality of life of anophthalmic patients. Methods: A total of 74 anophthalmic patients from the ophthalmology department of Izmir Ataturk Training and Research Hospital between January 2007 and August 2011 who were over 18 years of age were included in the study. The patients were classified as Group 1: those who underwent evisceration/enucleation surgery but did not use an ocular prosthesis, Group 2: those who underwent evisceration/enucleation surgery and then elected to use an ocular prosthesis, and Group 3: those who did not use a prosthesis and developed phytizis bulbi after ocular trauma. The 36-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) were administered to all participants. Results: When the SF-36 subscales of 3 groups were compared, it was found that Group 2 had significantly higher quality of life scores on all subscales. In addition, the Group 2 scores were significantly lower than those of the other 2 groups in both the HADS-A and HADS-D subgroups of the HADS test. Conclusion: The results indicated that anophthalmia is a condition that significantly reduces the quality of life of the patient. This was found to be particularly evident in elderly individuals. It was observed that prosthetic use increased quality of life and had a positive effect in both genders. Awareness should be raised of the difficulties that anophthalmic patients face in daily life while living with this disease and how these difficulties can be reduced.
Corresponding Author: Ozgur Erogul