[Results of liver transplantation in children; parents' opinion].

Since 1982, the liver transplantation team of the University Hospital of Groningen has been carrying out transplantations in children. This article focuses on the experiences of the parents of 19 children who have undergone transplantation. An interview and two questionnaires were used to collect the data. Data concerned children's physical and psychosocial functioning and their daily behaviour. Five older children also filled in two questionnaires. In general, parents were positive about their child's functioning. When the interviews were analysed at an individual level, several problems were reported, however. These problems did not fall within one specific domain. As a consequence, the questionnaires did not show any significant differences between these children and a matched control group of healthy children. The parents of the children aged 1-3 yr were more positive about their children's functioning than the parents of the children aged 4-12 yr. The positive results should be assessed in the light of children's functioning before transplantation: when compared with pre-transplantation problems, present problems are of little significance.