SUMMARYIn addition to the clinical outcome, a patient's perspective and satisfaction with their health status have become important indicators. One of the most common measures to assess the quality of life is Short Form (SF)-36. The objective of the present study was to measure the functional status of elderly patients who had undergone coronary bypass surgery and to evaluate the impact of that surgery on their quality of life.The study involved 120 nonsmoking patients who underwent coronary bypass surgery between January 1, 2001 and January 1, 2003 at the Sevket Demirel Heart Center. Assessments were made using physical, clinical, and laboratory findings. We used the Turkish version of the Short Form (SF)-36 preoperatively and 18 months after surgery. The paired t test, two-tailed correlation, and variant analysis were used for statistical analysis.Of the 120 patients, 108 could be followed during the study period. Significant physical and mental improvements were seen in all areas, especially in the items of vitality and mental health. Females seemed to benefit from surgery more than males.Cardiac surgery substantially improved the quality of life of our patients. The findings allowed us to determine the patient's perspective of his or her outcome. With this knowledge, health care workers can provide information to the patient regarding functional limitations after cardiac surgery. (Int Heart J 2006; 47: 59-65) Key words: Quality of life, SF-36, Coronary bypass surgery, Outcome measurement ALTHOUGH the most important indicator of health status is the clinical outcome, today health-related quality of life and the patient's perspective and satisfaction are major indicators of their medical outcome. Although clinical evaluation is a standard indicator of how a patient copes with his or her disease, other factors can also influence the clinical outcome. These factors are how a patient feels about himself or herself, how a patient perceives himself or herself, and the stages of returning to his or her routine life. We need to know how these factors affect the lives of our patients. Each patient can be affected by a situation From the